Mayor Zohran Mamdani unveiled a $4 billion plan Monday to rehabilitate the city-owned portion of the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway, saying the aging highway can no longer wait for repairs.
The plan covers the section of the expressway between Atlantic Avenue and Sands Street in Brooklyn — known as the BQE Central — that includes the deteriorating triple-cantilever stretch along the waterfront.
In a video unveiling the project, Mamdani described the nearly 70-year-old expressway as “long past its shelf life.”
“While it’s still safe to drive on, for now, we can’t wait any longer,” he said. “We’re done kicking the can down the road.”
Built by controversial urban planner Robert Moses between 1937 and 1964, the BQE currently carries more than 130,000 vehicles each day.
When the approximately 1.5-mile BQE Central was completed in 1954, it was only meant to support around 50,000 car trips per day, the mayor said.
The plan calls for repairing the BQE Central’s aging concrete and triple-cantilever section, as well as improving drainage, railings and lighting, City Hall said in a release.
To minimize traffic disruptions during construction, the city plans to build temporary bypass roads.
The first would be a temporary two-level highway bypass on top of Furman Street, below the Brooklyn Heights Promenade, stretching from Atlantic Avenue to Columbia Heights, according to the release.
The city said the bypass would not block the promenade, as it would be no higher than the existing Queens-bound level.
A second temporary elevated highway bypass would be built from Columbia Heights to the Manhattan Bridge, extending over the Brooklyn Bridge approach.
The city says the rehabilitation will take about 10 years and extend the BQE Central’s design life for another 40 years, through about 2080.
“This reflects the shortest-term rehabilitation plan needed to keep the structure safe and stable while also allowing the city to work with [New York state], which controls the northern and southern segments of the BQE, on a long-term vision for the entire highway,” the release said.
The plan is the latest attempt by a New York City mayor to address the aging highway’s deterioration.
“For decades, prior administrations have been trying to figure out a way to address the urgently-needed repairs to the BQE,” Mamdani said. “Every year we don’t do something about the BQE, it costs the city $160 million.”
The city said an environmental review process for the project is expected to begin this fall, with construction set to start in 2030.