The de Blasio administration wants to give four New York City streets a $250 million safety overhaul.

Under the mayor's preliminary budget, Fourth Avenue and Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn, as well as Grand Concourse in the Bronx, are slated to get major capital improvements that could included expanded pedestrian space and protected bike lanes. Of that amount, $100 million will go to Queens Boulevard, a street so hazardous it was once studied by the CDC.

"We want to try and envision something more grand," said Polly Trottenberg, the city's transportation commissioner, talking about the future of Queens Boulevard. "Something that makes it a move livable street, that looks at greenery, that looks at bus lanes, bike lanes, you name it."

That news thrilled members of City Council, who held an oversight hearing Thursday on the city's transportation budget.

"Thank you, thank you, thank you," said Council member Karen Koslowitz. "My dream in life is to not call Queens Boulevard the Boulevard of Death."

Those four streets together account for dozens of traffic fatalities over the years. While they have all received some measure of safety upgrades — last year, Atlantic Avenue became the city's first designated arterial slow zone, and Queens Boulevard has some speed cameras — the city envisions completely redesigning them.

Paul Steely White, the head of the advocacy group Transportation Alternatives, hailed the plan as a lifesaver.

"On average, we're looking at a 30 to 40 percent reduction in death and injury on streets that receive these fixes," he said.

But he added that the city needed to speed up its street safety program.

"Right now there's $1.2 billion in the 10-year capital program for street reconstruction," he said, speaking in front of City Hall just before the hearing. "That's great, and that includes that $250 million. But at that rate of street redesign, we won't fix all the dangerous streets for 100 years."

New York City Council members Mark Weprin (L) Ydanis Rodriguez, with Families for Safe Streets' Amy Cohen, standing outside City Hall

(Kate Hinds )

Speaking at the hearing later that morning, Trottenberg said the agency had to manage expectations. "This will be a big set of projects to work through," she said. "In the grand scheme of things, this is actually going to be a very very big initiative for us and we will be all hands on deck to get it done."

Trottenberg said that while the city will begin some immediate fixes as soon as possible, the bulk of the work won't be started until 2017.