(Christen Smith, The Center Square) New York City Zohran Mamdani unveiled plans Monday to spend $4 billion on a temporary fix to a crumbling section of the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway but didn’t say how his administration would pay for it.
Mamdani and New York City Department of Transportation Commissioner Mike Flynn announced that the city will rehabilitate a section of the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway between Atlantic Avenue and Sands Street.
The repair job, which could extend the life of the highway section by another 40 years, will allow the city “to safely fix the BQE without slowing our city down or wasting decades more on magical thinking,” Mamdani said.
“We’re 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,” Mamdani said in a video announcement. “The cost of inaction is too high, and the risks to New Yorkers are too important to delay any longer.”
The traffic-choked 70-year-old expressway between Brooklyn and Queens, built by controversial urban planner Robert Moses, is 20 years past its design life, according to city officials. It is deteriorating under the weight of 130,000 vehicles every day — more than double the capacity, officials said.
“Time is up,” Flynn said Monday. “After decades of kicking the can down the road and indecision that failed to yield substantial results, we will act with urgency to rehabilitate the City’s portion of the BQE to ensure the safety of New Yorkers and minimize the likelihood of massive traffic diversions into Brooklyn neighborhood.”
The Mamdani administration said it won’t be seeking federal funding for the 10-year project, which is expected to break ground in 2030, but didn’t identify a source of state funding to cover the estimated $4 billion overhaul.
Officials said the plan will keep the structure safe and stable as it negotiates with the state government, which controls the northern and southern sections of the highway, on a long-term vision for the entire corridor.
Mamdani’s Deputy Mayor for Operations, Julia Kerson, said without “significant rehabilitation,” the central section of the highway “will continue to weaken, more and more cars and heavy trucks will be forced onto local streets, key freight transportation networks will be disrupted, and the cost to the city will continue to rise.”
“For decades, prior administrations have been trying to figure out a way to address the urgently-needed repairs to the BQE,” Mamdani said. “Every year we don’t do something about the BQE, it costs the city $160 million.”
