Advocates with the Stop the Cross Bronx Expansion Coalition rallied at the Bronx River Art Center on Wednesday, urging Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s administration to “fast-track” restarting a stalled bus lane project on Tremont Avenue as an alternative to the state’s plan to repair the Cross Bronx Expressway.

Siddhartha Sánchez, executive director of the Bronx River Alliance, charged that Gov. Kathy Hochul‘s Department of Transportation’s plan to widen the expressway’s shoulders would “only deepen the very damage” that the highway has already inflicted on the Boogie Down. Widening the highway’s shoulders, advocates argue, could open the door to eventually adding more traffic lanes to the already heavily congested and polluting road, which cuts through the center of the Bronx.