NYC plans to build temporary highway in Brooklyn to fix crumbling road
New York City officials say they need to erect a temporary highway next to Brooklyn Bridge Park in order to rebuild a half-mile section of the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway that’s been crumbling for years.
The city transportation department on Monday announced the highway’s triple-cantilever will be closed while it’s rebuilt and restored in the 2030s. The project to repair the two stacked roadways beneath the Brooklyn Heights Promenade is expected to last a decade.
The temporary highway above Furman Street will prevent major disruptions for the 130,000 vehicles that drive on the structure each day. It will also have two levels and be the same height as the current highway, according to the plan.
Officials said the entire project will cost as much as $4 billion. They did not disclose how the work would be funded, but said it would not require federal money.
The plan marks the most significant infrastructure decision of Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s administration so far. The crumbling triple-cantilever has vexed the two previous mayors, and the new strategy is sure to draw pushback from neighbors who are wary of construction and anti-car activists who want to see the highway dismantled altogether.
A proposal to fix the BQE by using a temporary highway faced fierce opposition in 2018. Mayor Bill de Blasio’s administration abandoned that plan, which would have required a six-year closure of the promenade.
City Transportation Commissioner Michael Flynn said the construction will require the closure of sections of the promenade but the temporary roadway would be “tucked out of view” from the pathway.
