Dear Neighbors,
The city has once again put a BQE “fix” on the table.
On August 24, Mayor Mamdani and NYC Department of Transportation (DOT) announced a massive, $4 billion plan to repair the city-owned stretch of the BQE from Atlantic Avenue to Sands Street, including the Triple Cantilever. NYC DOT anticipates that construction would begin in 2029 and be completed in 2040.
On October 2, DOT issued a Positive Declaration and Draft Scope of Work, the first formal step in the city’s environmental review process. The timeline for public input into the environmental review process is very short. Formal scoping sessions will be held this November, with final comments due from the public by November 23, 2026.
So What’s the City’s Plan?
DOT’s proposed plan relies on the construction of two temporary highway bypasses: a two-level structure on Furman Street, (below the Promenade but at the level of the Queens-bound lanes) running from just north of the Atlantic Avenue interchange to Columbia Heights, and an elevated bypass from Columbia Heights that would fly over the Brooklyn Bridge approach. DOT acknowledges that the bypass would be wedged between the Cantilever structure and Brooklyn Bridge Park, and would come within 4 feet of some residences.
The plan also anticipates partial or full closures to numerous local parks during the approximate ten-year project duration, including Squibb Park, Hillside Dog Park, Adam Yauch Park, Anchorage Plaza, Clumber Corner, Bar and Grill Park, and would include the removal and total reconstruction of Harry Chapin Playground. DOT says that access to “portions” of the Promenade will remain during construction “to the extent feasible”. Add to this list the noise, pollution, and potential environmental damage that would be imposed on users of Brooklyn Bridge Park, not to mention the impediments to park access it would invariably produce.
It’s clear that building and removing two bypass highways would dramatically increase the cost, duration, and disruption caused by the project.
Is There an Alternative?
It’s no secret that the Triple Cantilever is in poor repair and the city’s decision to direct substantial resources to maintain the structure’s safety and integrity in the short term is correct. It’s inevitable that this repair work will cause some level of inconvenience and disturbance. But it is essential for the community to demand that the city fully and fairly evaluate every possible alternative to their proposed plan.
We believe the city hasn’t adequately studied options beyond the bypass approach, including a faster removal of traffic from the cantilever by using a variety of demand management strategies (many are outlined in the BQE Expert Panel Report), adding supports so the structure is no longer a cantilever as suggested by Shane Neufeld at Light and Air Studio, or repurposing the Triple Cantilever by shifting all traffic to the lower level, as in the Marc Wouters' Streamline plan. The goal must be to accomplish the repair at a fraction of the cost, time, and disruption resulting from the city’s current plan.
Yes Repair -- But Don’t Forget to Transform
For six years now, the BHA, our partners in the BQE Environmental Justice Coalition, and many other experts and observers have been advocating for the city to keep the cantilever and BQE Central section safe through substantive and targeted repairs, while simultaneously beginning to plan for a very different future for the BQE corridor. We call this approach “repair and transform.”
We’re far from the only ones making this argument. For example, just last week New York-based architect Viren Brahmbhatt wrote in the Architect's Newspaper:
“We are on the precipice of committing a multi-billion-dollar civic mistake…Are we repairing infrastructure, or reproducing the assumptions that created the problem in the first place? The BQE is not simply deteriorating concrete. It is a physical artifact of a mid-20th-century transportation philosophy—one that placed regional automobile movement above neighborhood continuity, pedestrian life, public space, and the waterfront…
Every dollar spent reproducing yesterday’s infrastructure is a dollar that cannot be spent elsewhere. Every acre devoted to moving vehicles is an acre that cannot serve another public purpose. And every major infrastructure project creates a precedent. If New York rebuilds the BQE essentially as it exists today, we will have told the next generation that the best answer we could imagine was to make the old answer last another 50 years.”
How to Get Involved
At this stage in the project, it is vital that the city give serious consideration to all possible alternatives to the bypass highway approach, and your voice can help make that happen.
The BQE Town Hall on Thursday, October 29 is sold out, but unregistered attendees can come to Brooklyn Borough Hall at 6 PM and will be admitted on a rolling basis as capacity allows. Otherwise, the key dates are:
Tuesday, November 10, 6:30–8:30 pm: In-person CEQR Public Scoping Session, City Tech Auditorium, 285 Jay Street.
Thursday, November 12, 6:30–8:30 pm: Virtual CEQR Public Scoping Session on Zoom. Register by November 5.
Monday, November 23: Deadline for written comments on the Draft Scope.
The BHA encourages all members of the community to participate in the public scoping process on this Draft Scope of Work, and we will be sharing our ideas on how best to do that in the coming days and weeks. |
