An Express Lane to the History of the BQE

The past, present and future of the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway came together in one room yesterday evening.

The Cobble Hill Association (CHA) held their spring general meeting at Long Island College Hospital, which featured a look at the construction and history of the BQE from local historian Francis Moronne, an update on plans to reconstruct the triple-cantilevered roadway from CHA President Roy Sloane, and possible construction plans for the future from Steve Whitehouse, founding partner of Starr Whitehouse Landscape Architects and Planners PLLC.

“So many people who have come to Cobble Hill have never seen what the area looked like before the BQE, and the thought for many is unimaginable,” said Moronne.

Using several of the city’s photo archives, Moronne put together a photo essay of the BQE’s construction from 1939-1960. Formerly known as the Brooklyn-Queens Connecting Highway, it went from Meeker Ave. in Greenpoint to Woodside in Queens.

In addition, the photos showed several buildings along Degraw St. in the ‘40s and ‘50s which were torn down for the building of the BQE, and even showed early planning drawings from iconic urban planner Robert Moses.

“With the way they made it look initially, people thought the BQE was going to be bordered by linear parks with tennis courts,” said Moronne. “Obviously that didn’t happen, because the highway even looks loud when you see photos of it a decade after those drawings.”

Sloane spoke about the Department of Transportation’s current plans for the BQE’s 1.5- mile triple cantilevered roadway that extends under the promenade and above Furman Street. The construction will be one of the city’s most extensive roadway projects since the highways of the 1950s were built.

The construction project is especially urgent because traffic engineers must figure out how to reroute the 160,000 cars that travel on the roadway each day.

“Engineers do not believe this roadway will be structurally sound after 2020,” said Sloane. “Right now, the BQE is at capacity for most of the day. If someone gets a flat tire in the morning, 10,000 or 15,000 people are late for work."

The contracts for the project must be finalized by 2018, and a design plan must be implemented by 2017. Several different options are being considered, including a straight line tunnel from Home Depot on exit 24 to the Brooklyn Navy Yard on exit 30. 

However, the cost for the options being considered average in the $350 million range, making their implementation unlikely.

“Rebuilding in place is the only option that seems financially feasible,” said Sloane. “It’s unfortunate that we can only put a band-aid on the problem though and not fully fix it.”

Lastly, Steve Whitehouse, whose firm was selected by the NYC/EDC for the BQE’s construction plans, presented several of the possible options being considered.

“We’re creating a menu of designs about how to move forward in relation to funding availability,” said Whitehouse.

Several of the options include a trench on Union St. that would ultimately make the BQE not visible to pedestrians, as well as green panels that reduce highway noise for surrounding areas.

Click on the photos to see the history of the BQE and current construction plans, and tell us your thoughts in the comments section.