NYC announces $4 billion plan to fix deteriorating section of the BQE

The Mamdani administration unveiled a $4 billion plan Monday to rehabilitate a section of the deteriorating Brooklyn-Queens Expressway.

The BQE's rusting 1.5-mile-long triple-cantilevered section in Brooklyn Heights is 20 years past its design life and bearing the weight of 130,000 vehicles every day, city officials said in a news release.

"What we have announced today is something that will be done through city funds ... because the cost of inaction is, frankly, too high," New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani said at an unrelated event.

But Long Island and metro-area drivers shouldn’t celebrate yet over the news regarding the vital link to Brooklyn and multiple bridge access points to Manhattan. The project isn’t expected to break ground until 2030 — and will take 10 years to complete.

Key to the project is plans by the city's Department of Transportation to build a temporary two-level bypass on top of Furman Street, below the promenade, from Atlantic Avenue to Columbia Heights — with a second temporary elevated highway bypass from Columbia Heights, over the Brooklyn Bridge approach, to the Manhattan Bridge.

"The plan does require a bypass, a four-lane bypass at the level just below the promenade," said Mamdani's deputy for operations, Julia Kerson. "Previous proposals had put that bypass on the promenade, which would have been quite disruptive. We feel this proposal does lessen the community impacts of prior proposals."

Officials said the bypasses will allow for rehabilitation and reconstruction of the deteriorated section, improving drainage, lighting and railings, all while protecting local streets from "dangerous through traffic."

The bypasses will "facilitate the movement of goods" while preserving access to historic destinations, including the Brooklyn Heights Promenade and Brooklyn Bridge Park, the release said.

Designed by controversial urban planner Robert Moses, the cantilevered section — meaning it is anchored on one side and projects outward with horizontal beams on the other — is the only portion of the BQE controlled by the city. When completed in 1954, it was designed to carry 50,000 vehicles a day — 80,000 fewer than it does now — and to last for 50 years.

A video released by the mayor’s office announcing the project opens with an overhead shot of a passing tractor trailer truck on the BQE blaring its horn. It then cuts to Mamdani, who says: "I’m standing under the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway. It’s nearly 70 years old and it’s long past its shelf life. While it’s still safe to drive on — for now — we can’t wait any longer."

The project is badly needed, the mayor said, because every year of inaction costs the city an additional $160 million and increases the risk of a shutdown that would force "a significant portion" of vehicle traffic, including an estimated 13,000 daily truck trips, onto local streets.

The $160 million cost is 4% of the $4 billion value of the construction or the rough inflation cost, according to NYC DOT spokesman Nick Benson.

The NYC DOT will begin a city environmental quality review this fall for the project, a process that includes community engagement sessions.