King said that it was likely that the current project area, which currently covers the BQE from Sands Street to Atlantic Avenue, would be extended further south to Hamilton Avenue to better connect the project to the Gowanus Expressway and the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel.

The alternate ideas to maintaining the existing structure are varied, and could include a tunnel that runs the current path of the BQE, or even one that ran under Downtown Brooklyn. A tunnel, however,  would be particularly difficult because five subway tunnels run under the triple cantilever section of the expressway.

Another proposal would be a non-expressway replacement, similar to what was done to the West Side Highway in Manhattan. During the question section, it was maintained that the Brooklyn Heights Promenade would not be at risk, as it is included as part of the historic district. Additionally, committee members reiterated the importance that the project not be staged in the developing Brooklyn Bridge Park.

The next full meeting will be a Stakeholder’s Advisory Committee meeting on December 2, at St. Francis College.

Today, the New York State Department of Transportation held two project scoping sessions about the two-decade rehabilitation of the 1.5 mile stretch of the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway from Atlantic Avenue to Sands Street, and local community members turned up to express their desires and concerns. 

The meetings began with a brief introduction regarding the need for the reconstruction work, and explaining the timeline and process the project will follow. Here’s the PowerPoint presentation: [PDF]

Today’s meetings are the first step in completing the environmental impact statement process. The developers have spilt the project’s review process into what they call two “tiers.” The first tier, which is expected to last until August 2012, will focus on developing the final project design and alternatives.

Following the presentation, community members stepped up to the microphone to express issues and ideas they would like to be considered by the developers. Suggestions after the jump.

Community suggestions:

• Vertical clearances need to be heightened so that trucks don’t have to exit on Atlantic Avenue.
• Many suggested that tolls be placed on the East River bridges and the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge in order to decrease the traffic flow into Brooklyn.
• The Atlantic Avenue on and off ramps are in dire need of redesign said Sandy Balboza, the president of the Atlantic Avenue Betterment Association (AABA). Balboza added that measures need to be taken to avoid additional traffic on Atlantic Avenue during construction.
• Brooklyn Bridge Park should not be used as a staging site for the construction, said Jane McGroarty, vice president of the Brooklyn Heights Association. The park is scheduled to be complete by the time the review process for the BQE rehabilitation ends in 2015. 
• The roadway should be repaired and resurfaced to reduce axle noise, ending the need for the 30-foot berm planned for Brooklyn Bridge Park, said Judy Francis, the president of the Brooklyn Bridge Park Defense Fund.  Additionally, the absence of a berm would allow for greater flexibility for construction, she said.
• A pedestrian bridge should be built from the Promenade down to Brooklyn Bridge Park, said John Dew, chair of Community Board 2.

If you couldn’t make the meeting, information will be available at the project website: www.nysdot.gov/BQEdowntownbrooklyn. You can also submit your comments and concerns until the initial project scoping ends on July 22^nd.

Once the feedback period ends in July, work will begin on a final scoping document that will outline the vision and limitations for the reconstruction.  That document will be released for public review early next year.

The two public project scoping sessions, as they are called, will be held in the Pfizer Auditorium of the Dibner Building at 5 MetroTech Center. The afternoon session will run from 3:00 to 6:00 p.m. and the evening session from 7:00 to 10:00 p.m.

Both meetings will provide the same information, and attendees will have the chance to address members of the NYSDOT and HDR, the engineering and consulting firm in charge of the project.

If you  are not able to make either of the meetings , you can find all the information presented at the meeting and submit your own comments at the project website,  https://www.nysdot.gov/bqedowntownbrooklyn. The public comment period will continue until July 22^nd.

Monday’s meeting comes at the beginning of the public outreach timeline. Under federal law, the project must first submit to public scoping before proceeding with an environmental impact statement. Developers have spilt the project’s review process into what they call two “tiers.”  The first tier, which is expected to last until August 2012, will focus on developing the final project design and alternatives. The second tier, which is projected to last until 2015, will focus more on the details of development.

We’ll have more details after Monday’s meetings. What comments, concerns or questions do you have about the project?

(BHB/Sarah Portlock)

The next two weeks are busy for community meetings — there’s the usual Community Board business, as well as updates on the BQE triple cantilever reconstruction project and city Department of Transportation’s ongoing project to rework Tillary Street and surface transit in Downtown. Here’s the calendar:

(1) Tonight, Monday, at 6 pm, is Community Board 2’s parks committee meeting. But district manager Rob Perris said there’s nothing slated for the agenda. Regardless, the meeting is at Brooklyn Hospital, dining rooms A and B (DeKalb Avenue, at St. Felix Street).

(2) Tomorrow, Tuesday night, is CB2’s transportation committee meeting, at 6 pm at St. Francis College’s first-floor boardroom (180 Remsen St., between Clinton and Court streets). On the agenda is an application for a new sidewalk café at the Brooklyn Heights Wine Bar. And, the committee will review the environmental impact statement for the BQE’s triple cantilever reconstruction project. (For more information about a separate BQE meeting, see below.)

(3) Also on Tuesday night is the 84th Precinct Community Council meeting, at 7 pm at 45 Main St., in DUMBO (between Water and Front streets). On the agenda is a crime update from the precinct’s commanding officer, Captain Mark DiPaolo.

(4) On Wednesday night, June 17, the CB2 land use committee will meet at 6 pm at Polytech’s Silleck Lounge in the Rogers/Jacobs buildings (327 Jay St., between Myrtle Avenue Promenade and Johnson Street). There are four landmark items up for discussion, but they are for home improvements at private homes on Columbia Heights, Bergen Street, and two in Fort Greene.

(5) Also due on Wednesday is an RSVP to participate in next week’s Tillary Street reconstruction project workshop. The Department of Transportation wants to hear your thoughts about the street and how it can be improved and reconceptualized. The city is completely reconstructing the street in 2012. For more information about the meeting, here’s a link to the project’s Web site. RSVP by June 17 to or call (718) 222-7259. The meeting itself is next Tuesday (6/23/09).

There are two big transportation meetings next week — here’s a heads’ up of what’s to come.

(6) On Monday (6/22/09) evening, the state Department of Transportation will host its latest public meeting about the major reconstruction project along the triple cantilevered portion of the BQE from Sands Street to Atlantic Avenue, and directly underneath the Promenade. Project managers will present the draft Environmental Impact Statement and draft Scoping Document, which provide descriptions of the project’s purpose and need, range of alternatives proposed, proposed process to involve the public, and methodologies and related study areas proposed for evaluating alternative environmental impact statements, according to the site.

You can download the DEIS PDF here or on the Web site, where project managers are posting important public documents and relevant background information. If you’re interested in the project, definitely check it out — it’s all information that sometimes tends to be obscured.

There will be two meetings on Monday, June 22 — one from 3-6 pm and again from 7-10 pm — at Polytech’s Pfizer Auditorium (5 Metrotech, along Myrtle Avenue Promenade between Jay Street and Flatbush Avenue Extension).

(7) The aforementioned city DOT Tillary Street public comment meeting is on Tuesday (6/23/09), from 6:30-8 pm, at Borough Hall (209 Joralemon St., between Adams and Court streets).

(8) And, lastly, on Thursday (6/25/09), the city Department of Transportation meeting  will present the initial results from a DOT/MTA investigation into the existing surface transit conditions in Downtown Brooklyn, and the public can comment about what works, what doesn’t, and what improvements you’d like to see. Here’s a pdf flyer for the meeting, which is on Thursday, June 25 from 5:30-8 pm at Polytech’s Dibner Library (5 Metrotech, between Jay Street and Flatbush Avenue Extension). There will be two presentations of the study, at 6:15 pm and 7 pm.

On Tuesday night, state Transportation Department engineers officially kicked off the two-decade reconstruction project of a 1.5-mile stretch of the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway that stretches from Sands Street to Atlantic Avenue and underneath our own Promenade.

The project will cost $295 million, with 80 percent of funding largely coming from the federal government and 20 percent from the state, said DOT spokesman Adam Levine.

Shovels won’t go into the ground until 2020 — yes, 2020, and not 2018 like engineers estimated last October — but project planning starts now, project manager Peter King told the 50 or so stakeholders who attended the meeting at Polytechnic University. Loosely quoting Churchill, he said, “We are nearing the end of the beginning.” (The timeline is available here.)

We’re getting a copy of the full Power Point presentation and will post it for you on Wednesday, but in the meantime, here are some highlights:

Update! Here’s the PowerPoint presentation: [pdf]

• The current structure is “safe,” despite having outlived its 50-year lifespan, King said, and engineers may do immediate repairs on necessary elements, even as the overall reconstruction project is underway.
• The actual work will be done in two phases. Engineers hope to have their final project design (known as the “Record of Decision”) for Tier 1 established by August 2012, and Tier 2 by mid-2015.
• As for Brooklyn Bridge Park, King said: “We’ve met with the Brooklyn Bridge Park planners and we continue to meet with them because we recognize the importance of that project to the community and to the city at large.” How the reconstruction work can coexist next to the park remains one of the project’s main challenges.
• The timeline is so extensive because of the specific and complicated nature of the project, and because it will take so many years to sort through the full environmental impact statement, interim projects, and analysis of alternative plans, King said. “Our commitment is to do this as quickly as we can, but as responsibly as we can,” he added.
• And, lastly, engineers are still sorting out the exact dimensions of the project, like if it will include the entrance/exit ramps at Columbia Street and Atlantic Avenue. Those details will be ironed out as planning gets underway.

The agency set up a project Web site, where they will post “comprehensive minutes” form each meeting and regular updates at https://www.nysdot.gov/bqedowntownbrooklyn. The next public meeting will be on June 22 at Polytech in Downtown Brooklyn.

Stay tuned!

“The project team and the stakeholders will be active participants in the meeting, and any public attendees are welcome to observe. There will be an opportunity at the end for public comment,” said agency spokesman Adam Levine.

The construction project is particularly sensitive because traffic engineers must figure out how to reroute the 160,000 cars that travel on the roadway each day, theoretically without compromising construction of Brooklyn Bridge Park. The project isn’t slated to break ground until 2018, but engineers have said they hope to have a plan by 2015.