According to Cate Corcoran in Brownstoner, “It seems the mayor has made up his mind.” He wants to repair the triple cantilevered section of the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway that sits below Brooklyn Heights and leave it and the rest of the highway as is, while mitigating the damage the BQE has done to other neighborhoods with “parks and plazas.”
Meanwhile, as Mary Frost in the Eagle reports, the City’s Department of Transportation has announced its plans for “[e]mergency repairs” to the BQE that will mean
closing most of the busy highway between Atlantic Avenue and Sands Street during three weekends and an unspecified number of nights between March and October of 2023.
Queens bound (northbound) BQE traffic will, during these periods, be required to exit at Atlantic Avenue, and will detour along Atlantic, Boerum Place, and Tillary Street before rejoining the BQE. Left turns off Atlantic to Hicks and Clinton streets will be prohibited to prevent through traffic from using them. Heights bound traffic will have to take Atlantic to Boerum Place, turn left onto Boerum Place, then left onto Schermerhorn or Joralemon, from Joralemon right onto Court, then continuing on to Cadman Plaza West, left onto Montague, Clark, or Middagh. According to the Eagle, “[t]he Brooklyn Heights Promenade will remain open during this work. DOT says it will be providing noise and dust mitigation.”
The DOT will solicit community input on all aspects of the project. There’s more information concerning “BQE Central” — the portion of the BQE between Atlantic and Sands — here. Here is a schedule of public events, some virtual and some in person, concerning the BQE repair and long-term plans. When more information is available about these events. we will publish it here. According to our friends at the Brooklyn Heights Association:
It is critical for our community “show up” and demonstrate to DOT that we care deeply about this issue, and that our voices must be heard and respected.
