12 NOVEMBER 18, 2021 RIDGEWOOD TIMES WWW.QNS.COM
Tear it down, and move it underground
On any given moment in New
York City, traffi c on the Brooklyn
Queens Expressway (BQE)
is a mess — and the only thing worse
than the volume is the road itself.
Much has been written about the
“triple-level” cantilever that carries the
roadway through Brooklyn Heights. It’s
crumbling, but it’s also complex, and the
city’s struggled in recent years for the
proper solution beyond removing two
traffi c lanes and lightening the load.
The rest of the roadway, from the
Battery Tunnel to the Grand Central
Parkway, isn’t much better. In too many
parts, the BQE doesn’t meet modern
federal highway standards for safety,
and cuts through entire communities
as a noisy eyesore that moves vehicles
but blocks normal life for its neighbors.
But one of the city’s preeminent
voices in New York City’s construction
trade, Carlo Scissura, may have spoken
for frustrated drivers and residents
everywhere on Wednesday when he
said, of the BQE, “tear it down” and build
a modern replacement.
Oh, if only!
The BQE carries tens of thousands
of cars, trucks and buses every day;
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Replacing the BQE with a new, tunneled expressway would be an incredible upgrade from the current roadway
itself. Photo by Todd Maisel
problematic as it is, the expressway is
through parts of Brooklyn and Queens
one of the most important arteries in the
— an idea that’s gathering momentum in
city. It’s hard to imagine the city, state and
the Bronx as well for the Cross Bronx
federal government ever going along
Expressway.
with a plan to make it disappear.
Replacing the BQE with a new, tunneled
The best way forward for the BQE,
expressway would be an incredible
however, might be to move much of it
upgrade from the current roadway
underground just as Boston buried its
itself. It would stitch back together neighborhoods
Central Artery through the “Big Dig”
that the roadway has split for
and Seattle interred its Alaskan Way.
decades and institute a revival of commercial
There’s also talk of capping the
and residential development.
concrete trenches where the BQE runs
But this won’t be cheap. It will cost
taxpayers tens of billions of dollars, and
numerous years, to get it done. Scissura
indicated that the recently passed Bipartisan
Infrastructure Bill might provide
New York with a down payment to get
it done.
It’s complex. It’s costly. It’ll be inconvenient
for the people who live there.
But tearing the BQE down and moving
it underground is an idea whose time has
fi nally come.
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