The Adams administration is proposing to initiate a community engagement process focused on the triple cantilever (BQE stretching from Atlantic Avenue to Sands St.) that would take place over the next six months to develop a proposal in advance of Spring 2023 federal funding deadlines. If the Adams administration can craft a consensus plan and very swiftly secure the required city, state, and federal approvals to move forward, the work to fix the triple cantilever would be designed and implemented over the next decade. On a parallel track, the Adams administration will be pursuing corridor wide planning in other Brooklyn neighborhoods impacted by the BQE.
“Our moment is right now,” the Mayor said in a statement. “I will not wait decades and needlessly spend hundreds of millions of additional taxpayer dollars when we can and must start rebuilding this vital transportation artery today.” His mention of money apparently referred to a plan announced last year by his predecessor, Bill de Blasio. The idea was to undertake a relatively temporary fix, as such things go — shoring up the B.Q.E. for 20 years while the city figured out a permanent solution at a cost of more than $500 million. Elements of the de Blasio plan have now been put on hold, and city officials said that Adams is in “active discussions” with state officials to overhaul the entire 18-mile highway, not just the 1.5-mile section that the city controls and that de Blasio was looking to rehabilitate. Adams said that fast-tracking a full-scale plan to “reimagine and rebuild the B.Q.E.” would let the city draw on billions in federal infrastructure money. “We have a once-in-a-generation opportunity,” he said, adding that “we are seizing it.” Read more in the NY Times here.
Council Member Lincoln Restler in a statement: “Without action – the BQE will be unsafe for trucks in a handful of years. Our community has been waiting for government leadership to replace the Robert Moses relic with infrastructure that elevates our neighborhoods. I believe we should take advantage of the opening provided by the Adams administration to see what we can achieve together.”
The Brooklyn Heights Association: “While we welcome the renewed focus on this pressing issue, many questions remain. We expect the community engagement process will be robust, and that moving with haste will not mean sacrificing a quality process. And, as we told the Times, the end result cannot be a rebuild of the Moses-era, pollution spewing mess that we have now, “We’ve moved beyond that. People would be upset not to see something more transformative, more green and more 21st century.”
