Kensico Dam Road Reopening for Recreational Access Celebrated
Officials celebrated the reopening of Kensico Dam Road in Valhalla last week for recreational access following the recent completion of a $42 million rehabilitation project.
The road, which runs across the top of the dam, has been periodically closed to traffic since Sept. 11, 2001. The road closed permanently to vehicles in 2002 and to pedestrians in 2005 to begin the rehabilitation work. It will accommodate walkers, joggers, inline skaters and bicyclists.
“It is in many ways the symbol of Westchester County. When you see the Kensico Dam, you think of Westchester,” said County Executive Rob Astorino, a Hawthorne resident who grew up spending time on the road and on the plaza. “I am really happy that this vital public space is open again for pedestrians and I look forward to making new memories here with my family to walk across and look at the reservoir, or go across on this site and look down 300 feet and see the people enjoying themselves.”
Carter Strickland, commissioner for the New York City Department of Environmental Protection, said the road was closed as part of a rehabilitation project to clean and repair the spillway, acid-wash the facade and colonnades, and replace the colonnade roofs, the gate house, and the valve chamber that controls the flow of water through the dam.
There was also repair work done to pavilions, colonnades, terrace and fountains, as well as installation of new technology to remotely operate equipment. Drainage systems were restored, electrical equipment was replaced, heating and ventilation systems were installed, and ornamental fencing was replaced along with landscaping of the grounds. Work, which was paid for by the DEP, was completed in December.
With the reopening of the road, the public will have “spectacular views of the Kensico Reservoir and surrounding areas,” Strickland said. The Kensico Dam stretches between West Westlake Drive and Route 22 and will be open seven days a week from dawn to dusk. As a public access area, the walkway will not require a DEP Access Permit.
Mount Pleasant Supervisor Joan Maybury described the reopening of the road as a “historic day.” Maybury said she and Astorino recalled when people were able to walk across the bridge on Kensico Dam Road.
“This is certainly a beautiful place to be,” she said. “And I know that families and friends are going to come here and enjoy it for many, many days and weeks and months to come.”
North Castle Supervisor Howard Arden thanked New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and others for their assistance.
“To me it means more than just the aesthetics of opening up a road, “Arden said. “It also means the return to normalcy after 9/11.”
“The Rising,” Westchester’s 9/11 memorial to county residents killed in the terrorist attacks, can be seen from the road. Its reopening is another way to remember the victims of that day, Arden said.
“Every freedom that we lost on 9/11 we’re now getting back bit by bit,” he said.
Assemblyman Robert Castelli said that considering the security concerns, the DEP and Astorino did an outstanding job reopening the road while being “fiscally responsible.”
“This is a perfect example of good government,” Westchester County Legislator Michael Smith said. “This is an example of someone who said they were going to get something done, the county executive, and he got it done.”
The Kensico Reservoir has been in service since 1915, holding about 30 billion gallons of water at full capacity. It receives most of its water from the city’s west-of-Hudson reservoirs through the Catskill and Delaware aqueducts, and serves as the last stop for water before it flows into the Hillview Reservoir in Yonkers for distribution in New York City.
