Mamdani Sets Sights on Fixing — Not Replacing — Deteriorating Section of BQE

Will Mayor Zohran Mamdani be the first administration to finally fix the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway (BQE) along Brooklyn Heights?

Mamdani announced Monday morning that the New York City Department of Transportation (DOT) would build bypasses around the surrounding neighborhoods and maintain access to local attractions while finally rebuilding the swiftly deteriorating cantilever portion of the freeway.

DOT would build a two-level bypass above Furman Street from Atlantic Avenue to Columbia Heights, sitting below the promenade and not extending above the current highway. The city would also create a second elevated bypass from Columbia Heights to the Manhattan Bridge.

The Mamdani administration plans to start the estimated $4 billion project in 2030, despite a sense of urgency from officials. The city estimates the project could take 10 years.

The Mamdani administration said it believes this renovation, as opposed to a replacement, will extend the life of the BQE for another 40 years.

“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 neighborhoods,” DOT Commissioner Mike Flynn said in a statement. “While the city and the state must right the wrongs of Robert Moses with the BQE and other infrastructure plowed through urban communities, decades of political paralysis have left us out of options.”

For every year that the city procrastinates, costs increase by an estimated $160 million, according to the announcement.

“For decades, prior administrations have failed to deliver urgent long-term repairs to BQE Central — but we can no longer afford to wait for the perfect solution,” Mamdani said in a statement. “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.”

But Mamdani is not the first mayor making big claims about his administration’s goals to fix what former DOT Commissioner Polly Trottenberg called “done on the cheap” infrastructure by Moses, a criticism leveled back when former Mayor Bill de Blasio was prioritizing the project in 2018.

At the time, Trottenberg, who went on to serve in the Joe Biden administration under former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, believed that a bypass would not be possible on either side of the BQE due to development on both sides. She advocated for a full replacement of the cantilever structure.

Therefore, the de Blasio administration saw no other alternative than to divert traffic through the adjacent neighborhoods during the estimated $3 billion to $4 billion rebuild, which at the time was expected to take six years.

“While many questions remain about construction and timeline, they are 100 percent right to start the clock now on action,” New York Building Congress CEO Carlo Scissura said in a statement Monday. “While this fix is aimed at the triple cantilever, we will continue to urge state and federal action on a holistic, corridor-wide vision for modernizing or even tearing down and replacing the remaining roadway.”

Mark Hallum can be reached at mhallum@commercialobserver.com.