NYC Mamdani admin unveils plan for more modest BQE repairs, foregoing fed funds

The City of New York has decided to go it alone on efforts to repair its section of the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway, foregoing federal funds and approvals in the hope of speeding up the work.

Officials are expected to announce Monday that the city will rebuild the infamous triple cantilever structure carrying the highway along Brooklyn Heights without going through a federal environmental review or seeking federal funding.

“Time is up. We are fixing the triple cantilever,” New York City Transportation Commissioner Mike Flynn said in a statement. “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.”

The crumbling structure carries roughly 130,000 vehicles daily — of which some 13,000 are trucks — and has been in serious need of repair since the de Blasio administration.

“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,” Mayor Mamdani said in a statement. “This plan allows us to safely fix the BQE without slowing our city down or wasting decades more on magical thinking.”

The city controls the 1.5 miles of the BQE that includes the structurally sketchy structure. The remainder of the highway is controlled by the state Department of Transportation.

Transit and community advocates had sought to use the necessary overhaul as an opportunity to “re-imagine” the highway — in 2023, the Adams administration presented a trio of conceptual designs that would have covered up the interstate highway with public green space.

A request to the feds to help fund the project was declined in 2024, and any federal funding would carry with it a requirement to modernize the highway to current code, mandating wider shoulders and increasing the footprint of the interstate.

The nature of the structure — with roadways cantilevered out under the Brooklyn Heights Promenade — precludes replacing one lane at a time, city officials told reporters last week.

While the cantilevers are being rebuilt, the city plans on building a temporary bypass highway atop Furman St. running from Atlantic Ave. to Columbia Heights below the level of the promenade. An additional bypass lane will run from Columbia Heights, over the Brooklyn Bridge approach, to the Manhattan Bridge.

The estimated $4 billion project is expected to take 10 years and is slated to break ground in 2030.