Van Wyck construction was supposed to end in September. Now it’s ‘early fall’ — Queens Daily Eagle

By Ryan Schwach

Officials are sticking with their hopes that Queens drivers and passengers will finally traverse a construction-free Van Wyck Expressway this year – but exactly when that day will come remains unclear.

In the spring, Queens Borough President Donovan Richards and New York State Department of Transportation officials said that Queens drivers would be free from decades of headaches on the notorious highway by September.

But now, the DOT and the BP are going with a broader “early fall” deadline for completion of the work, which includes creating a dedicated lane to John F. Kennedy International Airport.

“The Department of Transportation continues to progress its project along the Van Wyck Expressway that will improve access to and from JFK Airport and improve reliability throughout the corridor,” DOT spokesperson Joseph Morrissey said in a statement to the Eagle. Weather permitting, we currently expect to conclude the project this fall.”

When asked by the Eagle to specify the completion date, Morrissey said “early fall.”

The date is noticeably less specific than the timeframe given by DOT leadership earlier this year.

In April, DOT official Luis Aristy told a room of Queens residents at the South Ozone Park Seventh-day Adventist Church that “the remaining [work] will [be finished] by September.”

“It is going to be [done by] the end of summer,” he said. “That will be the entire project.”

A few weeks later, in a phone interview with the Eagle, Richards echoed Aristy’s statements and was willing to stake his political future on the deadline.

“If it’s not finished in September, don’t vote for me,” he said, although the BP, who is term-limited, will not be running for reelection.

Earlier this month, Richards toured the Van Wyck alongside DOT workers.

“After decades of seemingly endless construction and rehabilitation projects, work on the Van Wyck Expressway is, at long last, in the final stages of completion,” Richards said in a statement to the Eagle. “From the state-of-the-art new sewer infrastructure that will help keep South Queens dry to the new HOV lane that will get travelers and cab drivers in and out of JFK quicker than ever, this work to modernize the Van Wyck will have been well worth the wait.”

Regardless of when it’s completed, Richards said the World’s Borough will celebrate a construction-free Van Wyck soon.

“I’m still serious about that community block party once that work is over,” he added.

Generations of Queens drivers, particularly in South Queens between Howard Beach and Jamaica, have dealt with the road’s seemingly endless construction.