The Brooklyn-Queens Expressway is crumbling as salt and road moisture have weakened its concrete and steel base, and all the overloaded trucks it was never designed to carry.
But six years after New York City officials sounded the alarm about the BQE, there is still no consensus on what to do with the vital but obsolete 1940s highway, with its carrying capacity. 129,000 vehicles per day.
At least half a dozen plans have been put in place, heated meetings and rallies have been held, and a mayor’s panel of experts has worked for more than a year to come up with more options.
Jake Brooks, 47, a law professor, whose apartment building is next to the BQE and shakes because of the shaking, said: “It’s been a lot of work just to try not to make things worse, but we were Couldn’t make it better. of cars and trucks hit potholes and collide.
Now, the BQE story is taking a different turn as Mayor Eric Adams aims to start construction within five years of an undeveloped highway repair plan. That depends on a proposal put forward in 2021 by Mr Adams’ predecessor, Bill de Blasio, provisionally. on the highway for 20 years at a cost of more than $500 million to give the city more time to find a lasting solution.
“Our moment is now,” Mr. Adams said in a statement. “I won’t wait decades and don’t need to spend hundreds of millions more in taxes when we can and must start rebuilding this vital transportation lifeline today.”
The mayor added that fast-tracking the project will allow the city to potentially tap into the billions of dollars in new federal infrastructure funds unlocked by the Biden administration and use them to help pay for a one of the city’s most expensive transportation projects. Below federal law passed last year, cities can apply for the grant every year until 2026.
“We have a once-in-a-millennial opportunity to access the federal funding needed to re-imagine and rebuild the BQE that the post-pandemic economy and the city require, and we do,” said Adams. grasping it,” Mr. Adams said.
The mayor – who has a closer working relationship with Governor Kathy Hochul than Mr. de Blasio did with former Governor Andrew M. Cuomo – is also in “active discussions” with state officials about the move. overhauled the entire highway, running about 18 miles. , city officials said, rather than just focusing on the 1.5-mile stretch the city controls.
But some elected officials, community leaders and residents have questioned whether the city can actually implement a new plan in as little as five years and expressed concern about the cuts. Reduce extensive repairs to protect existing structures in the meantime.
“There is no easy solution; if there were, we would have done it years ago,” said Assemblyman Lincoln Restler of Brooklyn, who has criticized the Adams administration for not actively working on repairs. “This one got kicked down the street because it was too hard.”
Hank Gutman, a former transport commissioner under Mr. de Blasio, a member of the BQE board, said it was “fantasy” to believe that a new plan could be passed, approved and formulated. before the structure becomes unsafe. “They’ve run out of time and options without using the measures we announced and put in place last year,” he said.
BQE was built in sections from 1944 to 1948 in the age of Robert Moses, an influential planner who widened the city’s roads. Long known for its narrow lanes and potholes, the freeway also has one standout feature: the Brooklyn Heights pedestrian promenade with sweeping views of the Manhattan skyline, where traffic was stalled by the unusual three cantilever structure.
The roadbed is supported by reinforcement inside the concrete. They are being corroded by road salt seeping through the cracks, which expands from freezing and thawing and moisture.
In 2016, city officials announced they would rehibilitate The 1.5-mile stretch between Atlantic Avenue and Sands Street in Brooklyn, warns that if nothing is done, they will have to limit trucks by 2026 to reduce weight on the highway.
The BQE board later concluded that highways deteriorated even faster, in part because all trucks exceeded the federal 40-ton weight limit. At the panel’s urging, two of the six lanes have been removed This past August, this has reduced vehicle traffic.
In 2018, city officials presented two optionsto rebuild the highway, was rejected by critics, including Mr. Adams, the Brooklyn borough president. One plan calls for closing the Brooklyn Heights Promenade for up to six years and building a temporary highway on it to divert traffic while work goes on below.
Many of these critics envisioned a city with fewer cars and saw the BQE overhaul as an opportunity to do something about the worsening traffic conditions that have plagued neighborhoods. congestion and pollution, and making the streets more dangerous for pedestrians and cyclists.
Proposed objections have been floated. City Council weighed in with an $11 billion plan to tear down the highway and replace it with three mile long tunnel. Scott Stringer, former city manager, offer limited part of the highway to trucks and converted another part into a two-mile park.
Samuel I. Schwartz, a transportation engineer who used to work on highways will have no consensus on BQE, said. He recommended Mr. Adams and Ms. Hochul simply set a deadline to come up with a new plan – and then proceed with it in the face of almost certain opposition.
“The city and the state have to work together on this,” he said. “If they’re willing to commit to the decision a year from now, that’s a good plan.”
“The state stands ready to assist the city with its restoration project, including securing funding for federal infrastructure,” said Hazel Crampton-Hays, a spokeswoman for the governor.
City officials said they would continue to make necessary highway repairs, including some that were already laid out in Mr. de Blasio’s 20-year plan. They spent $100 million on a dedicated contractor for repairs identified by regular inspections. Sensors were also installed on the cantilever last year to monitor its vibrations and movements.
Next year, the city will begin rebuilding sections of two decaying bridge sections near Grace Courthouse and Clark Street in Brooklyn, which will allow for truck restrictions through 2028. Automated ticketing systems to The enforcement of the truck weight limit will come into operation as early as next year.
Because Mr. Adams wants to begin more permanent repairs to the BQE within five years and is committed to repairing the existing highway, city officials say the repairs are long-term, such as the expansion work on the surface. bridges and joints, will no longer be needed.
But in recent months, many community leaders and residents have grown increasingly frustrated and concerned about what they see as the city’s lack of transparency and urgency about the highway.
Pia Scala-Zankel, a writer whose family brownstone home in Brooklyn Heights overlooks a stretch of freeway, says she hasn’t seen any repairs underneath her home in the past year. She repeatedly asked the city transportation agency for an update on the repair, but received no results. “It was like a slap in the face,” she said.
City councilor Mr. Restler said that any BQE plan would require a “meaningful degree of community consensus,” with complex government approvals and environmental assessments. school. “No plan can be pushed down our throats by City Hall or anyone else,” he said.
Management officials said they have taken time to review the BQE project and will begin public meetings this month to work with the community on a new emergency plan.
Lara Birnback, executive director of the Brooklyn Heights Association, the neighborhood’s leading voice, says that local residents and drivers would welcome a plan sooner rather than later, though she notes, ” There are a lot of caveats and if any – all the pieces would have to line up in the right way for that to be possible. ”
She added that many in the community hope the city will do more than simply patch up an aging highway.
“We went further than that,” she said. “People will be upset if they don’t see something more transformative, greener and more 21st century.”
