New York State Department of Transportation Governmental Relations Division Westway Trade-in Files

B1919-06: No apparent arrangement.

The Westway was a transportation project conceived and planned in part by the administration of Governor Nelson Rockefeller as a replacement for the elevated West Side Highway on the west side of Lower Manhattan, New York City. The West Side Highway, which was built in the 1940s,was badly deteriorated by the earlier 1970s. After a sixty-foot section of the highway collapsed on December 16, 1973 under a cement truck that was dispatched to make repairs, the road was closed and an estimate of $88 million was made for the New York City Dept. of Transportation to rebuild the highway. Instead, the Rockefeller administration envisioned using matching federal funds to create the Westway project.

This project would replace the entire West Side Highway; create a modern, divided, high speed tunnel; and replace derelict railway yards and piers on the Lower West Side with green space larger than Central Park. The Westway project was never completed as originally envisioned. The elevated highway was demolished and replaced by the new West Side Highway (also known as the Route 9A project or the Interstate 478 project); some additional green space was created along the right-of-way; and some of the remaining funds were transferred to the New York City Transit Authority.

These records document the Westway trade-in, a plan in which the funds allocated for the Westway project were divided between the Route 9A project and the New York City Transit Authority for mass transit. Types of records include reports, correspondence, and planning material.

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