Rensselaer County to the north. State highway money was increasingly diverted to planning the thruway system. The proposed Berkshire Thruway terminus gave the TSPC renewed vigor in continuing construction, but meant that it had to abandon plans for a connection to the Tri-State Park, its original mandate. In October 1949, Dewey cut the chain on the section between Routes 55 and 199. 1950–63: Columbia County As the designers and builders pushed north into Columbia County, connecting Lake Taghkanic State Park at last to the parkway, they took advantage of the more open and rolling terrain to improve the road's scenic possibilities. Medians averaged in width, and it was easier to include views of the distant Catskills. Curves were generally wider than they had been in Dutchess County. A service station was built in the median at the park, and a scenic overlook at CR 8. Dewey again presided at the opening of the link from Route 199 to 82 in October 1954. He expressed pride in having gotten the parkway out of Dutchess County at last under his tenure. He also called for parkway designers to straighten the roads out, and praised the Thruway, then under construction on the opposite side of the river. Moses, in his speech, recalled Roosevelt's original hope to build the parkway all the way to Canada, the idea he had opposed three decades before. It did not appear likely that this would happen in any event, between the likely end of the Taconic at the Berkshire section of the Thruway and the recently announced plan to build the Adirondack Northway from Albany to Canada as part of the new Interstate Highway System. Grading of the next section, to reach NY 23, had begun a month before the ceremony. When it was completed in summer 1956, paving was delayed because the money had not been released due to disagreement over whether to continue the use of concrete or asphalt. This was settled in favor of concrete and paving began in spring of 1957. Asphalt proved less expensive, and it was used again when the next and last section of the Taconic to the Thruway was paved in the early 1960s. During this time another governor, Nelson Rockefeller, proposed that management of the road be turned over to a new entity, the East Hudson Parkway Authority (EHPA), along with all the other Westchester parkways since the debt