Paul Berger, Wall Street Journal, 01.30.20
A busy section of New York City highway is so deteriorated it should be reduced to four lanes from six and its traffic load lightened, according to a report released Thursday.
A panel of specialists appointed by Mayor Bill de Blasio also recommended in its report that the city tighten enforcement of overweight trucks and immediately begin repairs to the troubled 1.5-mile stretch of the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway.
The segment of Interstate 278, which cuts through the Brooklyn Heights neighborhood, carries 150,000 daily vehicles, including 15,000 trucks. Panelists say that could be reduced to 125,000 vehicles with the right policies.
Their report warned that the road is deteriorating faster than the city’s recent predictions, in part, because of the roughly 1,650 daily trucks that exceed an 80,000-pound weight limit. The panel recommended enforcing weight restrictions and beginning repairs as soon as possible.
“This is a thorny problem that defies easy solutions,” Olivia Lapeyrolerie, a spokeswoman for Mr. de Blasio, said in a statement Thursday. She said the administration would examine the proposals.
Mr. de Blasio formed the panel in April 2019 after residents and community groups opposed the city’s repair plans.
At the center of the dispute is a half-mile long cantilever bridge secured to a retaining wall that runs along Brooklyn Heights. The first and second levels of the bridge carry traffic. A third level holds a promenade with views of New York Harbor and Manhattan.
The bridge, which was built 70 years ago, needs extensive repairs.
In 2018, city engineers proposed shifting the six-lane highway onto the promenade, while the lower levels are replaced. Residents packed a public meeting that year, expressing fears of noise and pollution and the temporary loss of a popular public space.
Mr. de Blasio’s panel rejected the city’s proposal. It also declined to endorse alternatives floated by community groups and elected officials, saying they required further study at a time when the road urgently needs repair.
Instead, the 72-page report focused on fixing the road pending a longer-term solution. It also proposed that the city, New York state and the federal government collaborate on a plan for the 20-mile-long BQE, which cuts through communities and needs extensive repairs in several places.
Carlo Scissura, president of the New York Building Congress and the panel’s leader, said that rather than maintaining the road configuration, planners should improve it by reducing lanes and, where possible, reuniting communities divided by the highway.
Whatever happens in Brooklyn Heights will be painful. Repair options reviewed by the panel require dozens of weekend closures and hundreds of annual overnight closures that could continue for up to eight years.
The panelists said that reducing the volume of traffic on the BQE should be possible.
Currently, many drivers on the Brooklyn Heights stretch of the BQE are headed for toll-free bridges to avoid tolled crossings at the Hugh L. Carey and Queens-Midtown tunnels.
Panelists said New York state’s introduction of a congestion charge on vehicles entering Manhattan’s central business district, expected to begin in early 2021, could reduce rush-hour BQE traffic by between 7% and 14%.
Panelists suggested other ways of reducing traffic, such as closing or restricting ramps to the road, which would push drivers to other East River crossings.
They said that a well-designed two-lane highway would perform better than today’s narrow three-lane highway by providing better access lanes and shoulders. A reduction in road space should reduce traffic volumes, they added.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/reduce-traffic-on-brooklyn-queens-expressway-new-york-city-panel-says-11580423406
