18 Years After 9/11, Westchester County Officials Want To Reopen Kensico Dam Road
VALHALLA, N.Y. (CBSNewYork) - The closure of the road on top of the Kensico Dam is an enduring reminder of the 9/11 attacks.
It holds back 30 billion gallons of New York City drinking water.
Now, after 18 years, Westchester County says it is time to open the dam road.
The signs went up not long after 9/11, and the barricades were installed a few years later. The road over the Kensico Dam in central Westchester was closed due to fears the dam was a terror target.
"Everybody was worried that our water supply could be eliminated, so there was a lot of fear with that," said Mount Pleasant Town Supervisor Carl Fulgenzi.
Chopper 2 flew over the dam for a report by CBS2's Tony Aiello in 2003. Years later, a better understanding of likely terror targets has convinced the county executive it is time to reopen the road.
"We believe we can accomplish both goals, which is to secure the security of the dam and as well open a traffic process that is essential for emergency services and we think as well for the general population," Westchester County Executive George Latimer said.
Before the road was closed, traffic counts showed the road carried about 6,000 vehicles a day, Aiello reported. It was a popular east-west shortcut between two busy north-south roads.
The closure adds to traffic through the hamlet of Valhalla. EMS crews say at rush hour, to go a mile or two, it changes things.
"It takes us easily 10, 12, 14 minutes to get there because we can't safely navigate around all the traffic coming off the Bronx River," said Briana Chapman of the Valhalla Ambulance Corps.
The dam is owned by New York City, which is in no mood to discuss changes, Aiello reported.
A spokesman for the Department of Environmental Protection says any opening of the road "would present an untenable risk to the water supply."
The county hopes to persuade the city there's some middle ground, such as banning trucks and closing the road at night, which would secure the water supply and also ease the traffic tie-ups.
The city says it's trying to help by funding improvement to intersections in neighborhoods near the dam.
