Buffalo Infrastructure Funding Sets Up Decisions on Project Sequencing and Integration

Buffalo waterfront projects received $54.2 million in accelerated state funding for Wilkeson Pointe, the Bell Slip, the Gateway Building at Canalside and the Buffalo Riverwalk Feasibility Study, advancing those efforts by as much as three years.

The money arrives while several other city and county infrastructure efforts are already moving. A $17 million repaving program is upgrading more than 190 streets, with crews active in the Masten District. Three Erie County bridges, including the Fillmore Avenue and Grider Street spans over the Kensington Expressway, are under rehabilitation through a $9.9 million contract scheduled for completion by the end of 2025. Over $10 million in federal support is advancing the Riverline Project, which will convert a 1.5-mile railroad corridor into a greenway.

Waterfront acceleration raises sequencing questions

Officials now face choices about how to stage the four funded waterfront sites so that construction does not overlap with the ongoing $87.5 million reuse of the former DL&W Trainshed and the $50 million roadway and safety work on Tifft and Louisiana Street parkways. The Buffalo Riverwalk Feasibility Study will produce recommendations that must be weighed against the separate Riverline greenway route running from downtown to the waterfront. Decisions on which segments to build first will affect both budgets and traffic patterns along the connected corridors.

The $29.3 million Breckenridge Street Combined Sewer Overflow Control Project, which broke ground in April 2026, adds another active site that crews will need to coordinate with repaving crews already working across the city. Masten District residents have already seen milling and paving begin under the 2025 capital budget, so any new waterfront traffic routes will have to account for those completed sections.

Bridge work and East Side projects add coordination needs

The three bridges under rehabilitation sit along the Kensington Expressway, a corridor that links several neighborhoods to the waterfront projects. Completion by the end of 2025 will free crews and equipment, but planners must decide whether those resources shift next to Riverline segments or to remaining repaving targets among the 190 streets. Governor Kathy Hochul also awarded $10 million from the East Side Building Fund to 35 commercial and mixed-use projects, including the $13.5 million conversion at 950 Broadway into affordable housing, a Head Start program and an urban farm. Those developments will generate additional local traffic that must be accommodated once the Kensington bridges reopen.

City and state agencies will next determine contractor schedules, permit windows and public notification timelines for the coming construction seasons. The Riverline Project design work funded by the federal grant will produce alignment options that residents and businesses along the 1.5-mile corridor can review before final route selection. Progress on the Buffalo Riverwalk Feasibility Study will supply cost and impact data that officials can compare against the already funded Wilkeson Pointe and Bell Slip improvements. Those comparisons will guide which elements move into construction first and how the new greenway connections link to the repaved streets and rehabilitated bridges.