The 1.5 mile stretch of the Sheridan Expressway in the Bronx has long caused frustration for residents and those passing through. Borough reporter Erin Clarke examines why officials say now is the time to move forward with a redesign and filed the following report.

Right along the Bronx River sits a 13-acre oasis - Starlight Park. But there's something stopping many people who live nearby from using it.

"There's no access points to Starlight Park right now," said one Crotona Park East resident.

"To get across you have to walk all the way towards like 177th street and then walk along the highway to get into the park or cross through Bronx River Bridge," said another resident.

Local politicians want to change that and have asked the governor to support a plan to redevelop the Sheridan Expressway - a 1.5 mile federal interstate linking the Cross Bronx and Bruckner expressways.

"We want there to be a boulevard here in the same spirit, with the same type of engineering and the same way that you see on the West Side Highway. We want to be able to have intersections and islands with traffic lights," said Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz, Jr.

The boulevard would reduce traffic in the area, provide three pedestrian crossings and reduce the width of the highway.

"A lot of this roadway space that you see now would become developable land," said Bronx Borough President's Office Bureau of Planning & Development Director Wilhelm Ronda.

Diaz, Jr. thinks the boom in development in the Bronx will push the project forward.

Talk of redeveloping the Sheridan has been going on for decades.

Turning the Sheridan into a boulevard isn't the end game though. The Borough President is hoping that change would lead to improvements on connecting highways.

The Sheridan is often plagued by congestion where it meets the Bruckner and many trucks heading to the Hunts Point Market exit it onto local streets.

"This becomes for us, sort of laying down the ground work so that we can have future construction of an exit and entrance ramps from the top over there on Bruckner right into and out of Hunts Point," Diaz Jr. said.

The project though is expected to cost hundreds of millions of dollars and an Environmental Impact Study is still needed.

The state would also have to convince the federal government to give up control of the highway.

The state DOT says it is evaluating various options.