BQE Construction,
Complaints, Proceed
by Thomas Cogan

Photo DOT website BQE (looking Eastbound from Broadway): New pavement of EB & WB roadway from Broadway to 35th Ave. is now open to traffic.Construction of the Exit Ramp at Broadway will continue.(Photo taken April 10, 2003).

The responsible parties for the project known as Reconstruction of the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway, Broadway to 25th Avenue, made their second 2003 report to the public on two evenings in early June, at the usual presentation sites, the Lexington School for the Deaf and the White Castle office located just beside the project. The report revealed that significant progress is being made and that the target date for completion, springtime of next year, after close to three years of work, is likely to be met. Audience participation at each meeting again revealed that local residents are enduring a lot of annoyance as the project proceeds.

Work progress in the spring of 2003 was represented by such achievements as: completion of the westbound transition pavement at Broadway; reaching the third and final stage of reconstructing the BQE bridge over 35th Avenue; completing work on the western half of 69th Street and opening it again to traffic; completion of the steel installation and concrete deck of the CSX freight railroad bridge over the BQE, along with the beginning of second stage abutment and pier construction of the track route over Northern Boulevard; beginning construction of the pump station at 69th Street and 35th Avenue, and completion of the fourth and final stage of the BQE bridge over 34th Avenue.

There was significant progress on the Triborough Bridge connector, which included completion of the first of three stages of the eastbound part over 32nd Avenue, and second half construction of the westbound bridge over 31st Avenue and the supporting wall between 31st and 30th Avenues. The 31st Avenue bridge, the middle part of three levels of the Triborough connector, has been completed, and the avenue will be reopened toward the end of the month. The walls adjacent to St. Michael’s have been reconstructed, as have new walls on the Triborough connector between 30th and Bulova Avenues.

"It snowed all winter and rained all spring," said Craig Ruyle, New York State Department of Transportation’s engineer-in-charge. Weather delays are to be expected from time to time, but 2003 has thus far proved exceptionally difficult. Subsurface obstructions, existing field conditions that have prompted redesign and the necessity of obtaining permission from local agencies for one thing or another have also impeded progress somewhat. Nonetheless, the project is seen as three-quarters done.

The summer work schedule includes beginning reconstruction of 35th Avenue and the eastern half of 69th Street; shifting westbound traffic between Northern Boulevard and 35th Avenue; shifting traffic headed toward La Guardia Airport temporarily onto a structure at Northern Boulevard; closing the entrance ramp from 68th Street to the eastbound Triborough connector, and temporarily re-striping 30th Avenue for two westbound lanes for two legs of the BQE. The current airport connector bridges over 32nd and 31st Avenues will be demolished, and demolition will commence on the airport connector viaduct. The railroad trestle bridge over Northern Boulevard will be completed. Other parts to be completed, as the long project heads into what should be its final months, are the wall where the Triborough connector is being widened between 32nd and 31st Avenues and the rest of the wall on the route of the connector. The last stage of work on the BQE bridge over Northern Boulevard will be started.

Complaints from residents indicated the discomfort those living near the project are enduring. One woman said she felt as if she were "living in jail" because of the rerouting and noise she is forced to suffer. She asked how much longer all this would go on, and groaned as she heard Ruyle tell her it would be about nine months. Residents of the Andrew Jackson, a cooperative apartment house on Leverich Street, complained that the increased flow of traffic on 69th Street, which runs behind the building and parallel to BQE construction, increased the hazard both of getting out of and into their garages. Some sidewalks have had to be ripped up, and the makeshift blacktop replacements have taxed the abilities of the elderly, who are forced to negotiate them, often with crutches, canes and walkers. Traffic has inevitably made its way to 68th Street, where a local resident and mother said the constant flow is a menace to children. There were further complaints about noise at night, and again, the engineers said they do no night work, nor do they make deliveries at that time; thus, they pleaded, it must be some independent operation. One woman complained that the railroad is noisier than it used to be, perhaps because much of the weed-like shrubbery that grew along the old track was cleared away when the track had to be rerouted. That puzzled Dhiaa Shubber, one of the project’s chief engineers. He called the new rails conducive to noise abatement because their seams occur 1,500 feet apart, about 10 times longer than in older rails, and in addition, they are welded together. He did admit there is some squeak because of the track’s current curvature, but that, too, will be adjusted during the summer.

A look at the new walls, or even photographs of them, shows that one problem is always sure to recur—graffiti. The engineers have pledged that the last phase of the project, when all the new roadways and walls are finished, will be graffiti removal, but some in the audience foresaw that as a project in itself that could be less arduous if begun now, before all possible surfaces have been spray-painted. One person said Queens Graffiti Watch could monitor the scene and report violators, but its presence would have been in cooperation with the State Department of Transportation. Previous demands for landscaping or covering surfaces with ivy were not raised at this meeting.