The city’s Department of Transportation has unveiled an ambitious proposal to transform areas beneath and around the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway. Ideas ranging from new parks to marketplaces to e-bike charging stations would improve safety, reconnect neighborhoods currently divided by the highway, and enhance quality of life in these areas.
The proposals were released in a report entitled BQE North and South: Safe, Sustainable, Connected. BQE North runs from the Kosciuszko Bridge to Sands Street, and the BQE South stretches from Atlantic Avenue to the Verrazzano Bridge.
The report includes concepts for both short-term and long-term projects. Shorter-term projects include streetscape enhancements, while longer-term goals include redesigning intersections and capping the highway in sections to build new plazas and parks. Official say some of the shorter-term projects could be completed as early as this year or 2025. There is no definitive timeline for the most elaborate projects.
While the heavily trafficked highway is a vital throughway utilized by 150,000 vehicles daily, the DOT’s report also notes that the BQE divides neighborhoods and creates dangerous crossings for cyclists and pedestrians. The proposals in the report are still in the conceptual phase, but they offer exciting solutions for improving safety and reclaiming spaces in our Brooklyn neighborhoods.
Highlights of the report include the following concepts:
In Fort Greene, transforming the Park Avenue section to improve crossings for pedestrians and cyclists and create an area where delivery workers could store their vehicles and charge e-bikes.
In Carroll Gardens, building over the BQE at Union and Sackett Streets to create a public space and enhance connections to the Columbia Street Waterfront District.
Between Red Hook and Carroll Gardens, making safer pedestrian crossings at West 9th and Clinton Streets and creating a two-way bike lane and a restricted vehicle turn. Also in this section of the BQE along Hamilton Avenue, the report explores enhancing the “Hamilton Passage” beneath the highway with a running path, benches, and public space.
In Williamsburg, capping the BQE trench between Division Avenue and Borinquen Place and building a new park over the highway that would connect Marcy Green and Rodney Parks.
In Sunset Park, transforming spaces currently used for parking under the BQE into pop-up markets with stalls for vendors. This fall, the DOT tested this concept in Williamsburg by partnering with BK Flea to create the “BQ Flea” under the BQE along Meeker Avenue.
To read the full report and see all design concepts, click here.
The DOT’s proposals are a result of 18 months of community outreach, which highlighted street safety as a major priority. The city has $5.6 million from a federal grant to explore some of these concepts, but will need more funding and time to study proposals for longer-term projects.
The report did not address the reconstruction of the BQE in Brooklyn Heights, known as BQE Central, as it is considered a separate project. The latest proposals for the deteriorated triple-cantilever section were made in June, but a final design has not been presented. The DOT hopes to begin construction in mid-2029.
Updated: October 12, 2024.
