{"id":328845,"date":"2026-08-24T23:58:14","date_gmt":"2026-08-24T23:58:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/328845\/"},"modified":"2026-08-24T23:58:14","modified_gmt":"2026-08-24T23:58:14","slug":"mamdani-administration-pitches-multi-billion-dollar-plan-to-fix-bqes-crumbling-cantilever","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/328845\/","title":{"rendered":"Mamdani administration pitches multi-billion-dollar plan to fix BQE\u2019s crumbling cantilever"},"content":{"rendered":"

Could Zohran Mamdani be the mayor who finally manages to fix the beleaguered Brooklyn-Queens Expressway\u2019s<\/a> (BQE) triple cantilever on the Brooklyn Heights waterfront?<\/p>\n

Mamdani\u2019s Department of Transportation (DOT) unveiled on Monday a $3.5 to $4 billion plan to rehabilitate the part of the Robert Moses-era highway that runs through Brooklyn Heights, DUMBO, and Downtown Brooklyn between Atlantic Avenue and Sands Street \u2014 known as BQE Central. That section of the highway contains the triple cantilever, a tiered three-level structure built along the side of a cliff, with the first two levels accounting for each direction of traffic and the third containing the pedestrian Brooklyn Heights Promenade.<\/p>\n

Unlike previous BQE reconstruction proposals pitched over the past few years, which sought to cover the cantilever<\/a> with some amount of greenspace, the DOT\u2019s new plan would simply bring the current structural configuration into a state of good repair for another four decades.<\/p>\n

\"NYCThe BQE.Photo by Lloyd Mitchell<\/p>\n

The plan involves building temporary bypass roads alongside the BQE so that traffic can continue to flow over the course of the 10-year construction project, which the administration projects will be finished in 2040.<\/p>\n

Mamdani, in a statement and a social media video<\/a>, said that while past mayoral administrations have flirted with various BQE rehabilitation plans<\/a> without moving forward on any, the city has run out of time to wait for the \u201cperfect solution\u201d to present itself.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re going to fix the aging concrete, repair the deteriorating triple cantilever, and build temporary roads that keep the highway operable during construction to avoid sending tens of thousands of cars and trucks onto local streets,\u201d Mamdani stated. \u201cThis plan allows us to safely fix the BQE without slowing our city down or wasting decades more on magical thinking. The cost of inaction is too high, and the risks to New Yorkers are too important to delay any longer.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

DOT Commissioner Mike Flynn, in a virtual briefing with reporters ahead of the official announcement, said that BQE Central was built to last about 50 years and handle roughly 50,000 vehicles a day. But instead, it has stood for 70 years \u2014 20 years past its design life \u2014 and now suffers from the brutal wear-and-tear of bearing the burden of approximately 130,000 daily vehicles.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe structure is safe right now,\u201d Flynn said. \u201cBut with the time that it takes to gear up for major work, we really have pretty much run out of time to start to take action.\u201d<\/p>\n

What the BQE cantilever fix will entail<\/p>\n

Flynn said the rehabilitation will involve replacing structural elements such as deteriorated deck joints and concrete as well as corroded rebar. He added that the city will upgrade highway systems, including drainage, traffic railings, and lighting, but it will not do any work on interchanges or local streets.<\/p>\n

Additionally, Flynn said the plan does not call for widening the BQE, keeping the road at two lanes on each level.\n<\/p>\n

When it comes to the temporary bypass roads, the city will construct them along two sections of the highway.\n<\/p>\n

Flynn said one will be a two-level structure built over Furman Street between Atlantic Avenue and Columbia Heights, which runs parallel to the cantilever, that will not be taller than the current highway. He added that it will not be anything like a former Mayor Bill de Blasio-era proposal to use the promenade as a temporary bypass road,<\/a> closing it to pedestrians and making it a six-lane portion of the highway for several years.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt would be basically to the side of, and I think slightly below the current BQE structure, so\u2026it\u2019s not, you know, kind of a high thing like had been proposed a while back; it\u2019s a little more down and kind of tucked out of view,\u201d Flynn said.<\/p>\n

\"NYCThe BQE, top view.Photo by Lloyd Mitchell<\/p>\n

The second bypass would be for the Queens-bound side of the BQE between the Vine Street on-ramp and Anchorage Plaza, he said. It would run over the Staten Island-bound side of the highway and the Brooklyn Bridge approach.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re looking at alternative alignments for that because we know that that could be pretty impactful,\u201d Flynn said. \u201cWe\u2019re hoping that we can find other ways to make it work that would be less impactful.\u201d<\/p>\n

Flynn said that between now and 2028, the city will begin the land use and state-level parkland alienation processes necessary to do the project. The temporary bypasses would then be built by 2032, when construction on the main road would begin.<\/p>\n

Who pays for it?<\/p>\n

In the past, funding the BQE reconstruction has been a major stumbling block for the project<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It remains unclear exactly where the funding would come from, as the city is seeking to avoid the required reviews that would come with applying for federal dollars.\n<\/p>\n

A city official said there is some funding in the city budget, but did not specify how much or where the rest would come from.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cAt this point, what we\u2019re looking at is a project that we can do ourselves as a city and not necessarily have to rely on external partners,\u201d the official said. \u201cThe city has some funding in the budget, and we would be working with our partners to identify additional funding as needed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Reaction<\/p>\n

Local elected officials representing the Brooklyn neighborhoods through which the BQE cantilever runs expressed gratitude that the Mamdani administration chose a path to rehabilitate the structure, rather than attempt to rebuild it.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are encouraged that the Mamdani Administration has listened to our community\u2019s call to rehab\u2014rather than replace\u2014the BQE Triple Cantilever while maintaining only two lanes of traffic in each direction and the existing footprint of the structure,\u201d said state Sen. Andrew Gounardes, Assembly Member Jo Anne Simon and City Council Member Lincoln Restler in a joint statement. \u201cThis approach opens the possibility for future transformational change that communities up and down the BQE corridor have long advocated for.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even so, the lawmakers expressed concern about the impacts the \u201cinvasive and disruptive construction approach\u201d would have on the Brooklyn Heights community.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cWe hope the Mamdani administration will engage transparently and robustly with our community to collaboratively revise this proposal, improve air quality in surrounding neighborhoods, and explore new connections to Brooklyn Bridge Park,\u201d they wrote.\u00a0\u201cOur hope is that this rehabilitation project will be an interim step that allows us to plan for a post-BQE era and create a real timeframe to finally retire this Robert Moses relic.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meanwhile,\u00a0Carlo A. Scissura, president and CEO of the New York Building Congress, remained hopeful that \u201cstate and federal action\u201d would eventually result in a vision \u201cfor modernizing or even tearing down and replacing the remaining BQE roadway\u201d \u2014 but that the city could not afford to hurry up and wait on rebuilding the cantilever.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe sooner we can get a shovel in the ground to deal with the disastrous BQE before it completely fails, the better and safer this city will be,\u201d Scissura said. \u201cAnd so the Building Congress applauds Mayor Mamdani, Deputy Mayor Kerson, Commissioner Flynn and the entire administration for bringing a plan to the table that aims at relieving the worst section of the city\u2019s worst highway in the least time possible.\u201d<\/p>\n

With reporting by Robert Pozarycki<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Could Zohran Mamdani be the mayor who finally manages to fix the beleaguered Brooklyn-Queens Expressway\u2019s (BQE) triple cantilever…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":328846,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[9894,5333,33462,29551,98768,6157,111721,22925,9,24,63,122,124,123,123638],"class_list":["post-328845","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-queens","tag-bill-de-blasio","tag-bqe","tag-bqe-central","tag-brooklyn-queens-expressway","tag-department-of-tranportation","tag-dot","tag-dot-commmissioner-mike-flynn","tag-mayor-zohran-mamdani","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-queens","tag-queens-headlines","tag-queens-news","tag-tripple-cantilever"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/328845","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=328845"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/328845\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/328846"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=328845"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=328845"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=328845"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}