Hochul pauses Route 17 expansion

A highway expansion in the Hudson Valley has been delayed after pushback from transportation planners and environmentalists, who argued that it isn’t necessary and would harm the local environment.

The long-planned project, which Gov. Kathy Hochul has championed, would expand a 30-mile stretch of Route 17 in New York’s Orange and Sullivan counties. Last year, New York Focus reported that the project would cost the state at least $1.3 billion and claimed it would save drivers just one to six minutes.