AMHERST, N.Y. — It's been exactly one month since 2 On Your Side started looking into Niagara Falls Boulevard.
Tuesday, we checked in with New York State Department of Transportation, as well as the Towns of Amherst and Tonawanda, to find out what they've done over the past several weeks.
Todd Westhius, NYSDOT Chief of Staff, told 2 On Your Side in May that they would definitely look into making some "near term" solutions when we questioned their decision to wait to make improvements, until the end of a year-long study.
Today, the regional NYSDOT spokesperson, Susan Surdej, told 2 On Your Side they will be making improvements at 25 signalized intersections up and down the boulevard this summer.
The plan is to put in multiple high visibility crosswalks per intersection, depending on what's needed. Some crosswalks have just the two parallel lines. Others don't have any lines at all.
High visibility crosswalks involve the parallel pavement painting across the roadway, plus the ladder bar configuration throughout, that makes the crosswalk more easy to see for pedestrians and motorists.
2 On Your Side asked about the other pedestrian safety improvements that are needed, such as fixing signals and ramps, and connecting sidewalks all along the corridor. NYSDOT tells us they're looking at the possibility of more work in the coming months while they continue with their year-long study of the roadway.
2 On Your Side also followed up with the towns of Amherst and Tonawanda, which border this roadway on either side.
The town supervisors tell us they met with state legislators a few times over the past several weeks to discuss what else they think the NYSDOT should do. We're told the plan is ask the state to do a walking road audit with the towns to identify other things that can be fixed immediately.
There has been some debate about when that road audit might happen, since state legislators want to be involved. They're currently in legislative session until that wraps up later this month.
In the meantime, we're told the towns have been working together to gather aerial data which they hope will help their town engineers map out what they want to show NYSDOT when they hit the road for that audit.