The Wall Street Journal, Paul Berger, 12.16.2019
New York City may need to overhaul a 1.5-mile stretch of the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway as early as 2021, according to members of a panel convened by Mayor Bill de Blasio, buying the city more time to replace the roadway.
Mr. de Blasio formed the panel in April to assess the city’s contentious proposals to rebuild one of the busiest stretches of highway in the city, which cuts through an upscale Brooklyn neighborhood.
The Brooklyn-Queens Expressway runs on two levels of a cantilever bridge as it rounds Brooklyn Heights. About 150,000 vehicles rumble over this section of the highway each day below a promenade that affords sweeping views of Manhattan.
Last year, the city unveiled proposals to replace the highway over the following eight years. The plans were based, in part, on the idea that the cantilever would become unsafe for heavy trucks by 2026.
But the panel conducted research in recent months, including having sensors placed in the roadway, which found that the cantilever is deteriorating faster than the city initially believed.
Some panelists believe the cantilever could become unsafe within five years. They say the report will likely recommend imposing restrictions next year on the largest and heaviest trucks that use the BQE as well as a plan for repairs beginning in 2021.
Those repairs would require night and weekend closures or a full closure of the highway stretch until it is made safe, panelists say. That would buy the city more time to design a replacement for the stretch of highway.
Carlo Scissura, who led the panel, declined to discuss its findings. Mr. Scissura, president of the New York Building Congress, a trade group, emphasized that the report is still being drafted and won’t be published until January. “As of now, nothing has been finalized,” Mr. Scissura said in an interview.
A spokesman for Mr. de Blasio said: “We will review the external panel’s report when it is complete.”
Panel members said they have spent a great deal of time discussing repairs that will keep the road in working order for the next decade.
They added that the panel is likely to reject the two proposals unveiled by the city last year, which envisaged a $4 billion project to rebuild the cantilever roughly as it is today.
Brooklyn Heights residents opposed both proposals. They were particularly incensed by what appeared to be the city’s preferred plan to temporarily reroute the six-lane highway onto the promenade during construction.
Other groups, including an architecture firm and mayoral hopefuls, weighed in with their own proposals, which included putting the highway at ground level and building new parkland above it next to Brooklyn Bridge Park.
Panelists said the ultimate decision will be left to the city. But their research concluded that the city’s projections for future traffic growth on the stretch of highway could be inaccurate. They said traffic demands could fall in the coming years due to new expected road fees and that a like-for-like replacement of the cantilever might not be the best option.
“The long-term solution is going to be extraordinarily complicated and it will require more information and more data,” one panelist said.
A significant portion of today’s traffic on the cantilever is bound for a toll-free route to New Jersey through Manhattan via the Brooklyn Bridge and Manhattan Bridge.
But the planned implementation of congestion pricing in Manhattan, in 2021, could shift up to one-third of today’s cantilever traffic to the tolled Hugh L. Carey Tunnel, said Bruce Schaller, a traffic consultant and former city transportation department official.
Mr. Schaller, who didn’t advise the panel, said that such a shift in traffic could allow the city to reduce the number of lanes on the cantilever to four from six.
Panelists said they also considered whether a recent push by federal lawmakers in the region to implement two-way tolling on the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge could affect traffic demand on the cantilever. Tolls on the bridge currently only apply to eastbound traffic.
Advocates for the local communities said they are encouraged that the panel appears to be looking at the project through a broader, regional lens. They are also relieved that the panel might reject the city’s plans and recommend a reduction to a four-lane highway.
Hilary Jager, a co-founder of advocacy group A Better Way, said residents realize that whatever the city decides to do, they will have to suffer through years of heavy construction work.
But Ms. Jager said it would be worth it if the city sets its sights on a more transformative highway project that is better for residents as well as for drivers.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/brooklyn-queens-expressway-may-need-fix-sooner-than-expected-11576332000
