20 THE QUEENS COURIER • NOVEMBER 18, 2021 FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM
editorial
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
the expressway is one of the
most important arteries in the
city. It’s hard to imagine the
city, state and federal government
ever going along with a
plan to make it disappear.
Title: Queens College receives $1.1M endowment from
Flushing organization to support Asian contemporary
art
Summary: The Thomas Chen family, of Crystal Window
and Door Systems in Flushing, gifted an endowment
of $1,105,000 to Queens College to help establish the
college’s new School of the Arts.
Reach: 6,528 (as of 11/15/2021)
it down” and build a modern
replacement.
Oh, if only!
Th e BQE carries tens of thousands
of cars, trucks and buses
every day; problematic as it is,
THE QUEENS
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 traffic lanes and lightening
the load.
Th e 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
PUBLISHER AND PRESIDENT
CO-PUBLISHER & VICE PRESIDENT
PUBLISHER’S CHIEF OF STAFF
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
ART DIRECTOR
SOCIAL MEDIA MANAGER
STAFF REPORTERS
CONTRIBUTING REPORTERS
PRODUCTION MANAGER
INSIDE SALES MANAGER
PRODUCTION MANAGER CLASSIFIEDS
CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER
VICTORIA SCHNEPS-YUNIS
JOSHUA A. SCHNEPS
SARA KAUFMAN
ZACHARY GEWELB
NIRMAL SINGH
ANGELICA ACEVEDO
JENNA BAGCAL, KATRINA MEDOFF, CARLOTTA MOHAMED,
JULIA MORO, BILL PARRY
CLIFF KASDEN, SAMANTHA SOHMER, ELIZABETH ALONI
DEBORAH CUSICK
CELESTE ALAMIN
KEITH FIOCCA
MARIA VALENCIA
Schneps Media, 38-15 Bell Blvd., Bayside, NY 11361
718-224-5863 • Fax 718-224-5441
www.qns.com
editorial e-mail: editorial@qns.com
for advertising e-mail: ads@qns.com
Entire Contents Copyright 2017 by The Queens Courier
All letters sent to THE QUEENS COURIER should be brief and are subject to condensing. Writers should
include a full address and home and offi ce telephone numbers, where available, as well as affi liation, indicating
special interest. Anonymous letters are not printed. Name withheld on request.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR, AS WELL AS OP-ED PIECES IN NO WAY REFLECT THE PAPER’S POSITION.
No such ad or any part thereof may be reproduced without prior permission of THE QUEENS COURIER. The
publishers will not be responsible for any error in advertising beyond the cost of the space occupied by the error.
Errors must be reported to THE QUEENS COURIER within fi ve days of publication. Ad position cannot be guaranteed
unless paid prior to publication. Schneps Communications assumes no liability for the content or reply to any
ads. The advertiser assumes all liability for the content of and all replies. The advertiser agrees to hold THE QUEENS COURIER
and its employees harmless from all cost, expenses, liabilities, and damages resulting from or caused by the publication or recording placed
by the advertiser or any reply to any such advertisement.
Th e best way forward for
the BQE, however, might be
to move much of it underground
just as Boston buried
its Central Artery through the
“Big Dig” and Seattle interred
its Alaskan Way.
Th ere’s also talk of capping
the concrete trenches where
the BQE runs through parts
of Brooklyn and Queens — an
idea that’s gathering momentum
in the Bronx as well for the
Cross Bronx Expressway.
Replacing the BQE with a
new, tunneled expressway
would be an incredible upgrade
from the current roadway itself.
It would stitch back together
neighborhoods that the roadway
has split for decades and
institute a revival of commercial
and residential development.
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.
Photo by Todd Maisel
Replacing the BQE with a new, tunneled expressway would be an incredible upgrade from the current roadway itself.
/WWW.QNS.COM
link
link
/www.qns.com
/www.qns.com
link
link
