It's here, again: The city will fully close the Queens-bound lanes of the Brooklyn Queens Expressway between Atlantic Avenue and Sands Street for one weekend next month in order to conduct "necessary repair and replacement work" on the deteriorating structure, officials announced Monday.
The Oct. 14 to 16 work — which locals worry will send car and truck traffic spilling onto local streets — has been more than a year in the making, and is intended to forestall a broader, more ambitious reevaluation of the BQE's future.
City transportation officials are making a big show of the impending weekend-long shutdown, which follows two previous closures in March. In addition to the Queens-bound closure, the Staten Island-bound side of the highway will be reduced to one lane along the same stretch, officials said.
Several bus stops will be closed as a result of the city's detours. You can read about the full impact of the construction work on the DOT website.
Brooklyn Paper also covered the story in its backyard, naturally.
In other news:
- The City's Jose Martinez chimed in on the question of the month: Has the city sufficiently beefed up non-auto alternatives ahead of next year's planned congestion pricing launch?
- Hell Gate broke down the Mayor's Management Report. And the news ain't good.
- Read how Council Member Chi Ossé got the NYPD to relinquish a Bedford-Stuyvesant sidewalk after 40 years. (Vice)
- Subway ridership ticks up. (Gothamist)
- Metro-North boss Cathy Rinaldi is out as interim LIRR president, ending the MTA's 19-month unified railroad leadership experiment (for now) amid rash of controversies and rider complaints. (CBS New York, amNY, Newsday, Daily News)
- OMNY uptake is slowest in city's lower-income neighborhoods... (amNY)
- ... perhaps because the MTA has yet to install a single card vending machine. (NY Post)
- An e-bike rider is accused of critically injuring a pedestrian in Manhattan. (Village Sun)
- Meanwhile, a moped rider was doored to death in Brooklyn. (CBS2)
- In case you missed it, we published several important stories yesterday that you won't see anywhere else:
- DOT is ignoring dangerous conditions of its own making on Fourth Avenue in Brooklyn.
- The Council doesn't seem to have a plan for when the Dangerous Vehicle Abatement Program expires next month.
- Friend of Streetsblog Charles Komanoff took a deeper dive on Sunday's climate rally, expressing qualms about all the Biden bashing. (Carbon Tax Center)
- Rest in peace to our former New York Post colleague C.J. Sullivan. (NY Post)
