The city Department of Transportation (DOT), which is currently gathering community feedback on design plans to reconstruct the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway’s triple cantilever section, said construction won’t begin until 2029.
The triple cantilever section of the BQE, dubbed as BQE Central, is a 0.4 mile stretch of the highway that carries traffic on multiple levels beneath the Brooklyn Heights Promenade.
One of the plans presented at the meeting suggests stacking traffic lanes directly on top of each other to reduce space.
“We found that if we start to reduce the footprint of the structure by stacking the structure, we actually start to recapture some of this precious space for the city and create something which is simple, constructible and beautiful,” said Michael Stein, an engineer with schlaich bergermann partners, a structural engineering firm working with the DOT.
An environmental review of the area will begin in 2025, according to DOT Chief Strategy Officer Julie Bero, who spoke at a public meeting on Thursday. The agency will host several community engagement meetings this fall before that process begins, while the design bidding will begin in 2027 before construction is set to begin in 2029, she said.
As part of the environmental review process, DOT will complete an environmental impact statement statement (EIS), which will outline the impact of the project’s impact on the built and natural environment.
“Once environmental review begins we enter a two year time clock for completion of EIS. During these two years, we there will be several opportunities for the public to review and comment on the EIS,” said Bero.
The workshops are another important step forward in undoing the historic harm the BQE has created across communities, NYC DOT Commissioner Ydanis Rodriguez said through a statement.
A common concern among community members at the meeting was whether the highway would remain two lanes in the redesign. In 2021, the BQE was cut down to two lanes in both directions. DOT is conducting a traffic study to determine whether the highway should remain two lanes or be widened to three to increase traffic load, according to Bero.
Brooklyn resident Patrick Kilackey said he “strongly” believed that the highway only needs two lanes in this section.
“Having two lanes versus three lanes are fundamentally different projects in their impact,” he said.
Other concerns raised at the meeting were creating safe pedestrian connections, what kind of vibrations those living nearby could experience during the construction period and the visual impact of the design.
Some residents at the meeting pointed to the necessity to address concerns along other parts of the BQE beyond the triple cantilever. In April, several community organizations and elected officials came together to create the BQE Environmental Justice Coalition, a group advocating for environmentally friendly redesigns in other parts of the BQE where communities have faced negative health impacts due to proximity to the highway.
“We know the terrible harm that the BQE has done in the north and the south and to lots of communities up and down the whole corridor,” said Lara Birnback, executive director of the Brooklyn Heights Association. “What Brooklyn deserves is a corridor-wide solution that will make life better for everybody who lives along the corridor.”
The redesign project has several sources of funding, including $1.7 billion in capital funds, as well as funding from the Department of Parks and Recreation. The DOT officials also said they plan to apply for federal grants to pay for the redesign.
Thursday night’s meeting was the first of two final “visioning” meeting hosted by DOT before the environmental review process begins in the fall. The second meeting will be held virtually on Monday, June 24.
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