FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM AUGUST 29, 2019 • THE QUEENS COURIER 19
Kosciuszko Bridge fi nishes ahead of schedule
BY MARK HALLUM
mhallum@schnepsmedia.com
@QNS
Decades in the planning and making,
Transit advocates push for continuous Queens greenway
BY MAX PARROTT
mparrott@schnepsmedia.com
@QNS
While a recent pastoral New York Times
piece that explored several hiking stretches
on the Brooklyn-Queens Greenway
sought to introduce New Yorkers to the
natural marvels in their backyards, it
may have given Queens biking enthusiasts
pause.
Th ough the piece highlighted a 14.6-
mile stretch of the Eastern Queens
Greenway, which the Parks Department
has described as a “continuous” pedestrian
path, the experience of biking is far
from seamless.
For years, transportation activists have
been making the case that the eastern
Queens section of the Brooklyn-Queens
Greenway does not live up to its conception
as one connected nature trail. Th e
gated botanical garden, risky intersections
and rambling trails made from wood
chips and sand divide it into sections and
force bikers and pedestrians onto city
streets, they say.
To address these issues, Transportation
Alternatives have mounted a three-year
campaign for a Kissena Way plan, a bike
and pedestrian path that would extend
from Flushing through Kissena Corridor
Park and Kissena Park to include new
paths and protected bike connections.
“Th e idea behind it is if we have all
these parks and they’re basically all anatomically
next to each other, how is it that
you create the connection necessarily to
do so? And that requires basically diff erent
agencies in the city working together
on one unifi ed goal,” said Juan Restrepo,
operations coordinator at Transportation
Alternatives.
Restrepo says it would take a collaboration
between the Parks Department
and Department of Transportation to
make their vision a reality. Th e Parks
Department would take on the path-paving
and in some cases the creation of new
trails, while the DOT would be in charge
of designing safer bike and pedestrian
connections between the parks.
Th e idea to make a fl uid path between
these parks is not new. In the 1970s and
’80s, a series of plans and blueprints were
drawn up to build increased infrastructure
for walkers, runners and cyclists, but
they fell through in response to economic
collapse in 1975 and parks underfunding
in the ’80s.
“It’s a decades long unfulfi lled promise
to the people of eastern Queens to
connect all of this,” said Bike New York
spokesperson Laura Shepard, who would
ride the trails in the weekends when she
was growing up in Oakland Gardens.
Shepard pointed to a couple problem
areas in the parks. Th e fi rst come at
the Western end of the area where the
gated Queens Botanical Garden forces
bikers onto the street between Flushing
Meadows Corona Park and Kissena
Corridor Park.
Th en, when bikers get to Kissena
Corridor park, there’s no path running
through its entirety from East to West.
Th e walking path that extends most but
not all of the park’s longitude is made of
wood chips and sand – not suitable for
any road bike.
But apart from those individuals points,
Shepard said that the path needs clear
signposts that would guide travelers
along. Over years biking the area, she
knows its ins and outs, but she stays cognizant
of just how meandering and confusing
it would be for a biker who didn’t.
Aft er gathering close to 1,000 petition
signatures and the support of local
electeds like Councilman Peter Koo,
Assemblywoman Nily Rozic and state
Senator John Lieu, the obstacle is now to
get the plan funded.
Aft er Mayor de Blasio formed a special
task force to survey the area, the
Parks Department estimated that the plan
would cost $13 million. Shepard says that
the advocates are hoping to push elected
offi cials to fi nd the money in the next
budget cycle. Th is task will require buy-in
not just from electeds, but from the city
agencies as well.
the Kosciuszko Bridge reconstruction
project is set to end Th ursday with
the opening of a second cable-stayed
bridge for the Brooklyn-bound side of the
Brooklyn-Queens Expressway.
Aft er the grand opening of the Queensbound
side in April 2017, the project is due
for completion ahead of the September
completion date that Governor Andrew
Cuomo announced in May. In an Aug. 25
announcement, the governor noted that
the entire project is four years ahead of
original completion projections.
“While the federal administration
obsesses over building walls, in New
York, we are building bridges and other
infrastructure critical to moving our
21st century economy forward,” Cuomo
said. “With the opening of the second
span of the new Kosciuszko Bridge on
Wednesday, we will once again demonstrate
to the nation that it’s possible to take
on big projects and to get them done on
time and on budget.”
During a press tour in May, Cuomo
noted that the project totaled $873 million
for the state with an over $100,000
incentive for every day the contractors
push closer to completion ahead of schedule.
Th is fi nancing model for infrastructure
is known as design-build construction
and new in New York state, according
to Cuomo.
Th e second cable-stayed span will carry
four Brooklyn-bound lanes of the BQE,
along with a pedestrian and bike path. Th e
fi rst span, which has carried traffi c in both
directions since its opening in 2017, will
be reconfi gured for fi ve lanes of Queensbound
traffi c.
Th e original, 77-year-old bridge opened
in 1939 under President Franklin D.
Roosevelt’s administration. as a New Deal
public works project. Originally linking
Meeker Avenue in Brooklyn with Van
Dam Street in Queens, the steel truss
bridge was later incorporated into the
BQE when it was constructed — and
quickly became a traffi c-fi lled nightmare
in constant need of repair in later years.
It also did not meet many formal federal
highway standards for shoulders and
lane width.
Th e fi rst Kosciuszko Bridge was dismantled
following the opening of the fi rst
new cable-stayed span in 2017.
A public preview of the second new
span will take place from noon to 6 p.m.
on Wednesday, Aug. 28, before the bridge
is opened for traffi c on Th ursday morning,
the governor’s offi ce said.
However, it is unclear whether Cuomo
will arrive at the ribbon-cutting ceremony
in a 1932 Packard owned by FDR as
he did at the 2017 opening as well as the
opening of the Mario Cuomo Bridge, the
Tappan Zee Bridge replacement named for
Cuomo’s father and former state governor.
Governor Andrew Cuomo leaves his
mark in the wet concrete of the Brooklynbound
span of the new Kosciuszko Bridge.
Photo courtesy of the governor’s offi ce via Flickr
Governor Andrew Cuomo and a construction worker survey the second span of the new Kosciuszko
Bridge, which is set to open Aug. 29.
Photo: Max Parrott/QNS
A biker travels along the sidewalk at the entrance to Kissena Park.
/WWW.QNS.COM
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