What’s with All the Construction in West Nyack?

If you’ve driven along West Nyack Road in the past couple months, you’ve definitely noticed the tremendous amount of construction taking place. The south section of the road, which features a park, post office, and several shopping areas, have been a mess for a while now. There has also been periodic construction along the areas of West Nyack Road north of its intersection with Sickletown Road next to West Nyack Elementary and near Medical Park Drive. 

The improvements being made are a part of an ongoing project to both improve infrastructure in Clarkstown and quality of life. Plagued by flooding issues, the area around the historic West Nyack downtown has seen the replacement of an outdated storm management system. 

New high capacity culverts (structural tunnels that redirect storm water) have been installed as well as new catch basins, retention ponds, and updated landscaping. This project is meant to improve storm water drainage along West Nyack road to prevent flooding. 

The town has taken advantage of the ongoing construction by also developing the neighborhood into something more walkable and pedestrian friendly. Sidewalk improvements, the installation of updated street lamps, and improvements to the existing park will see the hamlet develop into a walkable destination for its residents. 

Along with this walkability comes improvements to the traffic flow. The split of West Nyack Way off of West Nyack Road will be developed into a four way intersection to improve the safety of the area for both drivers and pedestrians. There has been a sidewalk added as a barrier between the street and parking for the shopping plaza at 726 West Nyack Road eliminating the previous danger of drivers backing out of their parking spaces into oncoming traffic. 

These changes are not the only urban improvements coming to Clarkstown in the near future. Nanuet is in the  midst of planning for a project to improve transit access across the hamlet. The project calls for transit oriented developments to be made in and around Main Street near the Nanuet NJ Transit station. Clarkstown has been working with Patterns for Progress to develop the Hudson Valley Urban Action Agenda (UAA). The UAA is an action plan drawn up to improve urbanism in the Hudson Valley. The Village of Nyack is collaborating with the same project to improve its own urbanism as well.