NEW ROCHELLE, NY (September 11, 2025) — Residents voiced concerns Tuesday about outdated data and safety issues during a public hearing on the Quaker Ridge Road Complete Streets project, which city officials said was held to meet requirements for a Westchester County grant application due Sept. 19.
UPDATE 9/11 5:35 PM: The team sorting the Final Design Report (FDR) for the Quaker Ridge Road Complete Streets Project are said to dealing with very large files, but said it will be up no later than tomorrow afternoon. I will post the link or PDF to tomorrow.
UPDATE 9/12 5:12 PM: Final Design Report (FDR) for the Quaker Ridge Road Complete Streets Project has now live on the New Rochelle site here.
The hearing, held at City Hall, focused on the final design of the project and the city’s proposed application for construction funding through the Westchester County Complete Streets Municipal Assistance Program. The program, launched June 3, provides up to $15 million to assist municipalities with Complete Streets projects, offering up to 50% of total project costs with a maximum of $6 million per project.
The Quaker Ridge Road project involves redesigning the full length of the road from North Avenue to Weaver Street, reducing motor vehicle lanes to allow space for new bicycle lanes and sidewalks on each side, along with new high visibility crosswalks, updated traffic signals, paving, and signal updates. The redesign aims to enhance safety for all users, including pedestrians, bicyclists, and motorists, in line with Complete Streets guidelines.
Development Commissioner Adam Salgado reported a current funding gap of approximately $6.5 million for the project, down from a previously estimated $7.4 million. He said the city has secured about 49% of the required funds, including a $3.6 million federal grant for design, and is seeking the remaining 51% through additional sources.
We previously reported total project cost is estimated at $13.4 million, with $4.4 million remaining from a 2017 New York State Department of Transportation grant and $1.4 million from the city budget, leaving a $7.6 million shortfall. See Editor’s Note below on the discrepancy.
In an Aug. 14 letter to members of the Quaker Ridge Road Complete Streets Project Committee, City Manager Wilfredo Melendez said the redesigned road will transform the existing roadway — currently outdated, deteriorated, and overbuilt relative to its function as a local street — into a modern corridor with one travel lane in each direction, a bi-directional center turning lane, signalized intersections, designated bicycle lanes, and widened sidewalks.
“Unfortunately, in order for construction to proceed we still require a large amount of additional funding,” Melendez wrote.
He added that the city has been pursuing federal and state grants as well as congressional earmarks but has been unsuccessful to date.
“As of the writing of this letter, we have a pending grant application with the NYS DEC and are currently preparing an application for the Westchester County Complete Streets Grant Program,” Melendez said.
The hearing built on public outreach from prior years, including work with the Complete Streets committee and public hearings in 2019. However, it was the first major public engagement in six years, with speakers noting that supporting data, including traffic studies from 2018 and environmental assessments from around 2017-2019, is outdated due to post-COVID changes in traffic patterns and community needs.
Key concerns raised included high speeds endangering pedestrians, children, and cyclists; utility poles obstructing sidewalks; opposition to reducing lanes from four to two, potentially worsening congestion; and skepticism about the bike lane’s viability, with critics calling it a “bike lane to nowhere” due to its termination at Weaver Street, seen as too narrow and dangerous for biking with no clear connections to other routes.
Project representatives countered by referencing data from the Final Design Report, submitted to and approved by the U.S. Department of Transportation, which includes traffic studies, environmental assessments, and design plans. The report was previously available on the city website but had been removed; officials promised to restore it online soon but have yet to do so.
We have reached out to New Rochelle officials as well as the New York State Department of Transoprtion and will post a copy when it becomes available.
They also noted an agreement with Con Edison to relocate all utility poles, enabling a continuous 5-foot-wide sidewalk.
The Westchester County program requires applications to include evidence that public engagement, including a public hearing, has been performed. The hearing appeared primarily intended to fulfill compliance requirements for the county grant application, which prioritizes projects based on safety risks, benefits to users, and community commitment, including evidence of public engagement such as hearings.
Public comments can be submitted via email to CompleteStreets@newrochelleny.gov until Sept. 18 for inclusion in the application.
Municipalities must provide at least a conceptual cost estimate and demonstrate financial commitment for at least 50% of project costs.
EDITORS NOTE
Funding figures for the Quaker Ridge Road Complete Streets project presented in an August letter from City Manager Wilfredo Melendez differ from those shown in a slide at Tuesday’s public hearing, primarily due to the timing of the documents and the integration of a recent $1 million city expenditure as secured funding.
The Melendez letter, dated Aug. 14 and addressed to members of the Quaker Ridge Road Complete Streets Project Committee, listed secured federal and state funding at $4,424,777 for design and construction phases. It also noted $1,405,398 in city funds appropriated for those phases, implying a combined secured amount of $5,830,175. The letter separately mentioned an additional $1 million appropriated in the city’s 2025 capital budget for targeted repairs of critical sections of deteriorated concrete roadway, completed in early August. However, it did not incorporate this $1 million into the overall secured total or recalculate the funding gap. The total project cost was estimated at over $13,400,000, leaving an implied funding shortfall of approximately $7.57 million based on the pre-$1 million figures.
In contrast, a funding overview slide presented by city officials at the Sept. 9 public hearing at City Hall explicitly included the $1 million as part of secured funding. The slide broke it down as: $4,424,777 from U.S. Department of Transportation/New York State Department of Transportation grants; $1,405,398 from 2019 city matching funds; and $1,000,000 from the 2025 city contribution project. This resulted in a total secured amount of $6,830,175, representing 51% of the project. The slide provided a refined total project cost estimate of $13,438,000, with a funding gap of $6,607,825, or 49% of the total.
City Development Commissioner Adam Salgado reported a current funding gap of approximately $6.5 million, down from previously estimated figures of $7.4 million to $7.6 million which I reported previously.
Officials said that the $1 million recently spent on pothole repairs and concrete pavement rehabilitation along Quaker Ridge Road is now considered part of the overall project costs and secured contributions. This adjustment accounts for the lower gap in the hearing slide compared to the letter’s implied figures.
The difference stems from the nearly month-long gap between the letter’s drafting and the hearing. At the time of the letter, the $1 million expenditure was highlighted as an “important first step in the overall project’s construction timeline” but was not yet fully integrated into the project’s secured funding totals. By the hearing, the city had incorporated it as such, reflecting updated accounting that treats the repairs as advancing the project’s goals of roadway redesign, including lane reductions, bicycle lanes, sidewalks, and signal updates along the 1.5-mile stretch from North Avenue to Weaver Street.
The slide also outlined potential funding sources to close the gap, including a pending $2 million New York State Climate Smart Communities grant request, up to $6 million from the Westchester County Complete Streets Program, and to-be-determined amounts from U.S. Department of Transportation/New York State Department of Transportation Highway Safety Improvement Program formula funding.
RELATED
New Rochelle Faces $7.6M Shortfall on Quaker Ridge Road Project (9/3/2025)
Presentation and Public Hearing Set for Sept. 9 on Quaker Ridge Road Complete Streets Project
Westchester County Unveils $15M for Safer, Walkable Streets in New Rochelle Presser (6/4/2025)
GETTING RESULTS: Quaker Ridge Road “Larger Project” Reveal(6/2/2025)
What is the Mysterious “Larger Project” Coming for Quaker Rudge Road in Near Future 5/21/2025)
New Rochelle Seeks Bids for Quaker Ridge Road Pavement Rehab (5/4/2025)
Whatever Happened to the Quaker Ridge Road Rebuild(2/17/2025)
Quaker Ridge Complete Street Project (2/28/2019)
Quaker Ridge Road Meeting Recap and Presentation (3/2/2019)
Community Meeting: Quaker Ridge Road Improvements 2/27(2/13/2019)
City of New Rochelle Receives $3.5 million NYS Grant for Quaker Ridge Road Upgrades (4/27/2017)
This article was drafted with the aid of Grok, an AI tool by xAI, under the direction and editing of Robert Cox to ensure accuracy and adherence to journalistic standards.
