What you should know
- City to build temporary bypasses to protect neighborhoods from congestion and preserve access to historic destinations, including the Brooklyn Heights Promenade and Brooklyn Bridge Park, while construction is underway
- Every year of inaction costs the City $160 million and threatens highway closures that would force dangerous through traffic — including 13,000 daily truck trips — onto local streets
NEW YORK – Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani and New York City Department of Transportation (NYC DOT) Commissioner Mike Flynn today announced plans to rehabilitate the City-owned portion of the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway (BQE) between Atlantic Avenue and Sands Street. The infrastructure is 20 years past its design life and deteriorating under the weight of 130,000 vehicles every day — more than double the capacity for which it was designed.
“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,” said Mayor Mamdani. “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. This plan allows us to safely fix the BQE without slowing our city down or wasting decades more on magical thinking. The cost of inaction is too high, and the risks to New Yorkers are too important to delay any longer.”
“This administration does not shy away from hard truths or difficult problems,” said Deputy Mayor for Operations Julia Kerson. “Without significant rehabilitation, BQE Central 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. This plan tackles one of our City’s most pressing infrastructure challenges with the urgency, efficiency and clarity necessary to keep New Yorkers safe and moving. We must and will act now.”
“Time is up. We are fixing the triple cantilever. 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,” said NYC DOT Commissioner Mike Flynn. “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. Confronting the reality of cracked concrete, exposed steel and extensive rust damage simply cannot wait for another blue-ribbon commission.”
For decades, previous administrations have failed to deliver a rehabilitation of the City-owned section known as BQE Central, despite every year of inaction costing the City an additional $160 million in escalation alone and increasing the risk of a shutdown that would force a significant portion of daily vehicle trips, including all 13,000 daily truck trips, onto local streets.
Mayor Mamdani’s plan to stabilize BQE Central will use temporary bypass structures that allow NYC DOT to repair deteriorated sections of the highway and improve drainage, railings and lighting while protecting local streets from dangerous through traffic, facilitating the movement of goods and preserving access to historic destinations including the Brooklyn Heights Promenade and Brooklyn Bridge Park.
NYC DOT plans to build a temporary, two-level highway bypass on top of Furman Street, below the promenade, from Atlantic Avenue to Columbia Heights. This bypass will be no higher than the existing Queens-bound highway and will not block the promenade. The agency plans to build a second temporary, elevated highway bypass from Columbia Heights, over the Brooklyn Bridge approach, to the Manhattan Bridge.
The approximately $4 billion, 10-year rehabilitation will break ground in 2030 and extend BQE Central’s design life for another 40 years. This reflects the shortest-term rehabilitation plan needed to keep the structure safe and stable while also allowing the City to work with the State, which controls the northern and southern segments of the BQE, on a long-term vision for the entire highway.
The City and State are advancing major near-term investments in traffic safety and quality-of-life upgrades to neighborhoods along the BQE corridor, with a focus on historically disadvantaged communities along the State-owned sections of the highway that have borne the brunt of the BQE’s effects. Projects include a traffic safety redesign of Third Avenue in Sunset Park; $17 million in upcoming capital upgrades to Park Avenue in Fort Greene and Clinton Hill; and $26 million for capital implementation of the Brooklyn Waterfront Greenway in Gowanus and Red Hook, completed earlier this year.
Additionally, the City and State are making billions of dollars in long-term investments to shift vehicle trips to more efficient and sustainable modes, from the Interborough Express — a transformative new transit line between Sunset Park, Brooklyn, and Jackson Heights, Queens — to the Next Stop: Fast Buses, Better Service action plan and Brooklyn Bus Network Redesign, as well as initiatives that will shift freight movement from trucks to waterways, rail and cargo bikes.
NYC DOT will begin the City Environmental Quality Review (CEQR) process this fall for the BQE Central project and host robust community engagement through informational sessions and the public scoping process. The agency expects to complete an environmental impact statement in summer 2028. For more information about the project and public meetings, visit nyc.gov/bqe.
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