By Ryan Schwach<\/p>\n
In 1991, Julia Louis-Dreyfus\u2019 Seinfeld character Elaine Benes recounted a harrowing experience on the dreaded Van Wyck Expressway in Queens. <\/p>\n
\u201cThey say no one’s ever beaten the Van Wyck,\u201d she said, with tousled hair and bulging, fearful eyes. \u201cBut gentlemen, I tell you this, I came as close as anyone ever has.\u201d <\/p>\n
Thirty-five years later, drivers are still battling the Van Wyck, hoping to conquer its consistent and seemingly never-ending construction, repairs and airport-bound traffic. <\/p>\n
But city and state officials say that battle may finally soon be over. <\/p>\n
Heavy construction currently underway on the Van Wyck Expressway is expected to be completed by September, bringing new life to one of New York City\u2019s most notorious highways, according to state officials and Queens Borough President Donovan Richards. <\/p>\n
\u201cThis has been a pain for a lifetime, and it’s about time we put this to bed,\u201d Richards told the Eagle. \u201cWe all are tired of the Van Wyck being worked on and the delays and the congestion that impacts the local community.\u201d<\/p>\n
Named after the city\u2019s first post-consolidation mayor, Robert Van Wyck, the Van Wyck was built in 1965. It has been a scourge on the mental health of drivers and commuters predominantly in Southeast Queens essentially since its creation. <\/p>\n
\u201cI just turned 43, and this thing has been worked on for over 50 years at least,\u201d Richards said. <\/p>\n
The roadway has been under some kind of construction since at least the 1980s. Making matters more complicated was the construction of the John F. Kennedy International Airport AirTrain, which runs above a large portion of the Van Wyck. <\/p>\n
Since 2017, the state has started several construction projects along the Van Wyck south of Jamaica Avenue to replace outdated infrastructure and make the road more usable. Among the projects was one that changed accesses at Atlantic and Liberty Avenues, and a $13 million effort to replace the Jewel Avenue overpass. <\/p>\n
The work set to be completed in September is expected to improve road safety along the Van Wyck around its approach to the airport, as well as mitigate flooding issues. <\/p>\n
The crown jewel of the soon-to-be completed work is a lane solely dedicated to airport traffic, giving airport commuters a potential straight shot to JFK while hopefully mitigating traffic for everyone else.<\/p>\n
Richards, and the state Department of Transportation, which is managing the construction, are expecting the work to wrap up by September. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt’s been a long haul, and we understand that, and I think we’re getting to the finish line,\u201d said Daileyne Abraham, the DOT\u2019s director of construction, during a public meeting in March. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe anticipate there will be reduced travel time, because you have this dedicated lane,\u201d Abraham added. \u201cYou don’t have to mix with the other traveling public, but you’re going to have three dedicated lanes on the right for people going in and out of the Van Wyck, and then you have this lane that you enter that you cannot exit until you get to the airport.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Ryan Schwach In 1991, Julia Louis-Dreyfus\u2019 Seinfeld character Elaine Benes recounted a harrowing experience on the dreaded…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":245097,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[9,24,63,122,124,123],"class_list":["post-245096","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-queens","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-queens","tag-queens-headlines","tag-queens-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245096","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=245096"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245096\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/245097"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=245096"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=245096"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=245096"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}