BQ-We can deal with that later
Mayor de Blasio unveils plan to prop up crumbling BQE until 2040
BY KEVIN DUGGAN
The city wants to extend
the lifespan of the dangerously
decaying Brooklyn-
Queens Expressway at the
Brooklyn waterfront by almost
20 years, giving offi cials
nearly two more decades to
come up with an actual plan
for what to do with the ailing
highway, Mayor Bill de Blasio
announced Wednesday.
“We have a very different
approach we’re announcing
today. It is bold, it is different,
it is innovative, it is
about preparing for the future
in a new way,” said de
Blasio at his Aug. 4 daily
press briefi ng. “Folks at the
Department of Transportation
have come up with a variety
of new strategies to extend
the current life of the
BQE cantilever, up to 2040
and beyond.”
The mayor outlined a fourpoint
for the 1954 roadway:
Maintain the current infrastructure,
do immediate fi xes
where the structure has decayed
COURIER L 20 IFE, AUGUST 13-19, 2021
the worst, “hold heavy
trucks accountable,” and then
come up with a longer-term vision
for the Interstate 278 corridor.
Experts previously said the
BQE’s triple cantilever could
become unsafe by 2025, but
there are some concrete
changes coming in the near
future to ensure the structure
can outlive that deadline, according
to offi cials.
DOT will start narrowing
the highway from six lanes to
four slightly wider lanes with
a new shoulder on a roughly
half-mile stretch from Atlantic
Avenue to the Brooklyn
Bridge on Aug. 30.
Agency commissioner
Hank Gutman said the narrowing
will lighten the load
of vehicles on the 67-year-old
piece of infrastructure, make
it safer during emergency situations,
and cause fewer delays
due to crashes.
The city will also fi nish
ongoing concrete and rebar
repairs on the BQE’s Hicks
Street retaining wall shoring
up the three-level section
that wraps around Brooklyn
Heights, and work on twodeck
spans that have been deteriorating
faster in 2022.
“That’s going to involve
some closures and some delays,
we’re going to try to do
what we can overnight, to
minimize the delays,” said
Gutman.
De Blasio reiterated his
vow to crack down on illegally
overweight trucks on the
highway, which cause outsize
damage to the structure, by
ordering monthly NYPD enforcement
blitzes and installing
so-called weigh-in-motion
sensors, which automatically
catch heavy haulers.
The sensors still require
approval in the State Legislature
and a signature from
Governor Andrew Cuomo, but
de Blasio hopes the city can install
those next year under his
successor’s mayoral administration.
Other measures to keep the
busy highway intact — which
pre-pandemic carried 150,000
vehicles a day, including
15,000 trucks — is to reduce
corrosion by improving drainage,
stop salting the surface in
the winter, and waterproofi ng
the joints.
City offi cials have previously said the highway could become unsafe by
2025. Photo by Todd Maisel
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