{"id":293002,"date":"2026-07-11T03:31:37","date_gmt":"2026-07-11T03:31:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/293002\/"},"modified":"2026-07-11T03:31:37","modified_gmt":"2026-07-11T03:31:37","slug":"nyc-dot-to-hire-assistant-commissioner-to-oversee-bqe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/293002\/","title":{"rendered":"NYC DOT to hire assistant commissioner to oversee BQE"},"content":{"rendered":"

BROOKLYN HEIGHTS \u2014 New York City Transportation Commissioner Mike Flynn has posted a job alert on LinkedIn for an Assistant Commissioner<\/a> to address the \u201caging infrastructure\u201d on the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway triple cantilever between Atlantic Avenue and Sands Street.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cCalling all creative civil\/structural engineers! Be a part of addressing the condition of the BQE Central section (aka triple cantilever) once and for all,\u201d Flynn wrote. \u201cThis is an urgent infrastructure priority project, and leading that effort is a career-defining opportunity.\u201d The job pays up to $250,000.<\/p>\n

The BQE, also known as I-278, was built in the 1940s by \u201cMaster Builder\u201d Robert Moses. The deteriorating triple cantilever has been a hot potato throughout two previous mayoral administrations.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>The BQE Environmental Justice Coalition is urging officials to back a plan reuniting communities long divided by the BQE, like South Williamsburg, shown here. Photo: Mary Frost\/Brooklyn Eagle<\/p>\n

Mayor Zohran Mamdani appears ready to move ahead with the complex project, though the job listing does not indicate the city\u2019s exact approach.<\/p>\n

According to the listing, the selected candidate will oversee a team of eight people and manage design and construction planning, environmental review processes and other regulatory requirements. They will coordinate Design-Build or Design-Bid-Build procurements and construction, lead consultant teams, be responsible for delivering project milestones, communicating challenges and opportunities to leadership, and mitigating delays.\u00a0<\/p>\n

DOT says the candidate will also support efforts related to projects along the BQE corridor north and south<\/a> of BQE Central, which could include capping sections of the highway. The expressway, which carries 150,000 vehicles a day, has divided neighborhoods like Williamsburg, Carroll Gardens and Sunset Park for almost 70 years, bringing dangerous pedestrian crossings, noise and pollution.<\/p>\n

Reach out, says Brooklyn Heights Association\u00a0<\/p>\n

In a response to Flynn on LinkedIn, Lara Birnback, Executive Director of the Brooklyn Heights Association, wrote, \u201cCommissioner Flynn, members of the communities who live adjacent to the BQE corridor are eager to meet with you and your team to work together on reimagining the BQE once and for all for the benefit of our city and the health of its people \u2026 I hope you\u2019ll be reaching out soon.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>The BQE Environmental Justice Coalition says the city\u2019s BQE proposal ignores the plight of low-income and working-class communities living north and south of BQE Central. Map: NYC DOT<\/p>\n

In 2019, the BHA successfully fought off DOT\u2019s original plans to build a temporary six-lane BQE\u00a0 \u201cHighway to Hell<\/a>\u201d where the historic Promenade now stands. The plan would have required the teardown of the entire cantilever and the construction of a temporary \u201cparallel\u201d bypass highway, which would have ultimately had to be torn down. This plan would have brought the noise, pollution and vibrations of an estimated 153,000 vehicles a day to the neighborhood\u2019s street level for years.<\/p>\n

The BHA is a member of the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway Environmental Justice Alliance, which includes 16 organizations ranging from El Puente in Williamsburg to the Red Hook Initiative. The alliance<\/a> is pushing for an equitable and more forward-thinking redesign of the entire BQE, which runs from the Verrazano Bridge to Queens. The group says the rebuilding of the BQE presents the city with a \u201conce-in-a-generation opportunity\u201d to undo decades of environmental racism and community harm.<\/p>\n

Plans come, plans go<\/p>\n

A BQE panel appointed by Mayor Bill de Blasio in 2020 recommended immediately starting emergency repairs to the highway, removing two of its six lanes, and commencing long-term planning for a transformational\u00a0re-envisioning<\/a>\u00a0of the entire BQE corridor from Staten Island to Queens. Several of these recommendations were carried out, including lane eliminations and\u00a0Weigh-In-Motion<\/a>\u00a0sensors, prolonging the life of the highway.<\/p>\n

The Adams administration, however, decided to push ahead with a gigantic reconstruction project<\/a> on the triple cantilever, the only section of the interstate controlled by the city, in a bid to take advantage of President Joe Biden\u2019s bipartisan infrastructure funds.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BROOKLYN HEIGHTS \u2014 New York City Transportation Commissioner Mike Flynn has posted a job alert on LinkedIn for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":293003,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[111852,98,100,99,33465,3075,9,24,5325,63,142,82],"class_list":["post-293002","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-brooklyn","tag-bqe-repairs-brooklyn-queens-expressway","tag-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn-headlines","tag-brooklyn-news","tag-brooklyn-queens-expressway-bqe","tag-lincoln-restler","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-no-paywall","tag-nyc","tag-transit","tag-zohran-mamdani"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/293002","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=293002"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/293002\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/293003"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=293002"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=293002"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=293002"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}