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Should NYC build a park on a sunken stretch of the BQE?
By
Catalina Gonella
Published Oct 31, 2023
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Catalina Gonella
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Catalina Gonella
Published Oct 31, 2023
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The Department of Transportation laid out some of its proposals for the reimagining of the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway at a community workshop Monday night — including one to cover the sunken stretch of the road by building a park on top of it.
The proposals presented at the Williamsburg public meeting covered a section known as BQE North, stretching from Sands Street in Dumbo to the Kosciuszko Bridge in Greenpoint. It was the 20th such workshop in a series intended to gather community input on plans for the expressway.
DOT officials said the concepts presented took into account public input that called for the reconnection of the communities on either side of the corridor, and expressed concern about noise and pollution. Officials said the proposal would take advantage of a “once-in-a-generation opportunity” to access federal dollars via the Reconnecting Communities and Neighborhoods grant the city applied for this year.
Julie Bero, the DOT’s chief strategy officer, presented the audience with short-, mid- and long-term proposals for three sections of BQE North — the two viaducts sections, one near the Brooklyn Navy Yard and the other in North Williamsburg and Greenpoint, and the Williamsburg Trench in between them, where the BQE sinks under street level.
The trench is where the DOT is proposing its most ambitious proposal — “capping” the highway with greenspace. The renderings presented on Monday showed the section of the highway between Borinquen Place and Division Avenue covered with parks and other amenities on top that connect the adjacent streets above.
“We’ve been able to identify an area of the sunken highway of the BQE that we can build over, we can build bridges that could contain parks or other community amenities to reconnect the communities that have been divided by this highway,” Bero said on Monday. “We’re really looking at about five to seven blocks of covered capping, which could include park space as well as community amenities like farmers markets or rest stations for delivery workers.”
Capping the highway would require extra coordination with the state, which owns the BQE infrastructure, officials said.
Another proposal would repurpose car parking under the BQE on Meeker Avenue with pedestrian- and bike-friendly amenities that would connect the commercial areas on either side, including a pop-up market with space for vendors, an outdoor fitness area and delivery lockers.
Other plans included additional pedestrian plazas in the areas adjacent to the BQE, bike lanes, improvements to sanitation under the highway and traffic calming measures.
During the workshop portion of the meeting where residents had the opportunity to provide feedback on the ideas, some expressed concern about losing parking, while others said they wanted even more radical changes to what they referred to as car-centric infrastructure.
When it came to the concept of capping the highway, Williamsburg resident Solveig Entwistle said she was skeptical that capping would happen in her lifetime. She said she hopes the DOT will focus its efforts on carrying out the smaller changes proposed.
“I think it's very far-fetched,” Entwistle told Gothamist. “I did ask if there was another example of it within the city and nothing is as big as this would be. So I don't think it would happen in my lifetime — I think it's a nice idea.”
The final report is expected in the spring.
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new york city
parks
brooklyn
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transportation
Catalina Gonella
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