Burying The Elevated West Side Highway At 57st Street; Fact Or Fiction?

Have you heard the rumored plan to bury the elevated West Side Highway known as the Miller Highway beginning at 57th Street. Seen in the photo above provided by a friend of NYCTB, a tunnel visible at 61st Street has already been constructed, in front of Trump City, to accommodate the road.

Anyone know more about the project? There seems to be a dearth of information online, but a Wikipedia entry on the WSH corroborates:

Burying this section has always been politically complicated because in the 1990s $70 million was spent to straighten, widen, and reinforce the elevated highway. Nevertheless, in June, 2006, the new developer began construction of a tunnel for the relocated highway between 61st and 65th streets.

As well, the Wikipedia page on Riverside South contains similar information, including a "photo-simulation of Riverside South with West Side Highway relocated to grade and covered picture of the same area." So is this fact or fiction? It seems a more appropriate question is where will the funding come from?

Calls and emails to Community Board 7, Scott Stringer and the DOT requesting more information have not been returned. For a closer look at the tunnel, view the photo above in its orginal size of 4000x3000.

UPDATE: Curbed sheds more light on this project





Previously: » Follow NYC The Blog on Facebook and Twitter. Photo credit: unknown/NYC The Blog