By CLAYTON GUSE
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
FEB 25, 2020 | 7:29 PM
The only way to fix a crumbling stretch of the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway is for Gov. Cuomo and Mayor de Blasio to kiss and make up, a top New York City construction official said Tuesday.
New York Building Congress president Carlo Scissura told Council members a new governing body must be formed in order to fix the dilapidated highway before it becomes too dangerous to drive on. He said it must include city, state and federal officials.
“The governor, the mayor, our elected reps from Washington must come together,” said Scissura. “Unless there is a true entity that has teeth, that has money and has actual power to build, nothing will get done.”
Scissura said Cuomo and de Blasio should model the new entity off the Gateway Development Commission, a new public authority formed by New York and New Jersey last year to try to build a pair of new Hudson River rail tunnels.
New York Building Congress president Carlo Scissura. (Stefan Jeremiah/for New York Daily News)
The repairs to the BQE must be made soon — engineers have warned the stretch of the BQE between Atlantic Ave. and Sands St. will be stable for just another six years if nothing is done.
City and state officials have for years played hot potato with the BQE work. The state took responsibility for the repairs from 2006 to 2011 before passing the project to city officials.
“We have certainly talked to our state partners in the years we’ve been looking at this project,” city Transportation Commissioner Polly Trottenberg told Council members Tuesday. “I can’t say we’ve done a lot together ... We certainly haven’t come together on a bigger governance structure.”
City Department of Transportation officials last month formally abandoned plans to build a temporary six-lane road over the Brooklyn Heights Promenade for six years while crews fix the dilapidated highway that’s stacked beneath the waterfront attraction.
The plan sparked outrage among well-funded Brooklyn Heights neighborhood groups, which successfully lobbied the city to look into alternative construction methods.
Several alternatives have been pitched since, including a plan put forth Monday by a City Council consultant to build a three-mile, $11 billion tunnel through Brooklyn to bypass the BQE’s most problematic parts.
Traffic consultant Sam Schwartz, who has advised the city’s DOT on the project, called the BQE a “cancer” on the city’s infrastructure. He said the wildly expensive tunnel was a bad idea — but urged city leaders to take an inspired approach to fix the highway.
“I think this should be a legacy project for the city,” said Schwartz. “I don’t think we should just rebuild the highway as is. Let’s think of ways to connect Brooklyn Heights communities and other nearby communities to Brooklyn Bridge Park.”
https://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/ny-bqe-plan-promenade-fix-20200226-qy5ou7hqcrh57au3muliz5zq2a-story.html
