8 THE QUEENS COURIER • JULY 27, 2017 FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM
City starts makeover at Jackson Heights’ Diversity Plaza
BY ANGELA MATUA
amatua@qns.com / @AngelaMatua
A public plaza installed in Jackson
Heights in 2012 will receive new amenities
to make the two-block space more
pedestrian friendly.
Mayor Bill de Blasio, as part of “City
Hall in Your Borough,” announced the
improvements along with Department
of Transportation (DOT) Commissioner
Polly Trottenberg and other elected offi -
cials. Th e plaza encompasses 37th Road
from Broadway to 73rd and 74th Streets
from Roosevelt Avenue to Broadway.
A total of $4.45 million will go toward
installing new trees, bike racks, movable
furniture, raised planters, wayfi nding
signage and designated space for performances.
In addition to the new amenities,
the Department of Design and
Construction will reconstruct several surrounding
streets and install new water
mains, catch basins, sidewalks, curbs,
street lighting and traffi c signals.
Th e makeover is expected to be completed
next summer and the Horticultural Society
of New York will provide daily maintenance
and technical services. Th e plaza has acted
as a venue for public performances, a meeting
space for residents to mourn tragedies
and a place for political activism.
Th e co-chairs of the community group
Friends of Diversity Plaza said the plaza
“showcases the very best of Jackson
Heights.”
“We are thrilled that the big day for
Mayor Bill de Blasio, City Councilman Daniel Dromm and others help break ground on the reconstruction of Diversity Plaza in Jackson Heights.
Diversity Plaza has arrived,” said Shekar
Krishnan and Eirik Davey-Gislason,
co-chairs of Friends of Diversity Plaza, in
a statement. “Diversity Plaza represents a
powerful message of solidarity at a time
when we need it most.”
Councilman Daniel Dromm, who
helped to fund the improvements, called
Diversity Plaza the “epicenter of our
neighborhood.”
“As someone who worked hard to
establish the plaza six years ago, I am
Photo by Edwin J. Torress / Mayoral Photo Offi ce
delighted to see it come so far,” Dromm
said. “Not only is Diversity Plaza home to
many important cultural events, it serves
as a town hall for residents who wish to
protest, celebrate and mourn as one community.”
Main span of former Kosciuszko Bridge lowered
BY ANGELA MATUA
Th e old Kosciuszko is being demolished
amatua@qns.com / @AngelaMatua
to make way for the second span,
which will be erected in its footprint. Th e
Th e city started deconstructing the
approaches to the 78-year-old bridge will
Kosciuszko Bridge in Maspeth on July 25,
be imploded to save seven to nine months
as crews began lowering the main span
of construction. Th e controlled procedure
for shipment to a metal recycling facility
does not blow up the bridge but cuts key
in New Jersey.
connections that cause the spans to fall.
According to the Department of
A spokesperson for the Department of
Transportation, steel cables were used
Transportation said that there is currently
lower the span 125 feet, approximately 20
no set date for the implosion.
feet an hour, onto two barges. It took 16
Th e fi rst new Kosciuszko Bridge (which
to 18 hours to complete the process.
will eventually become the Queensbound
In April, Governor Andrew Cuomo
span) currently carries three lanes
held a ceremony for the fi rst phase of
of traffi c in both directions until the second
the newly constructed Kosciuszko Bridge.
bridge is complete in 2020. In total,
Th e fi rst of two twin cable-stayed spans
construction will cost $873 million. When
was the fi rst new bridge built in New York
completed, the Queens-bound side of the
City since the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge
bridge will hold fi ve lanes of traffi c while
Photo by Dean Moses
was completed in 1964.
the Brooklyn-bound span will hold four.
The main span of the former Kosciuszko Bridge was lowered on July 25.
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