Almost $200 million in Brooklyn-Queens Expressway (BQE) repair funds may be shifted out of this year’s city budget if Mayor Eric Adams gets his way — raising concerns among local lawmakers that City Hall is kicking the can down the road when it comes to keeping the highway’s crumbling triple-cantilever section safe.
The mayor’s Executive Budget proposes to cut $180.5 million from the Department of Transportation’s spending on BQE fixes this year — a drop from $225.1 million to just $44.6 million — and moves those funds into later years, according to a City Council briefing document from Thursday.
City Council Member Lincoln Restler, whose district includes the Brooklyn Heights waterfront area with the deteriorating section of the highway between Atlantic Avenue and Sands Street, accused the agency of moving the project over to the slow lane.
“The dramatic reductions in funding by upwards of $180 million that should have been spent this year… is of grave concern and, frankly, is indicative of the lack of urgency the DOT is placing on making the necessary repairs at this location,” said Restler at a lengthy May 12 Council budget hearing on transportation.
The city still plans to spend the same $1.5 billion overall through 2031 on BQE repairs, according to the brief, but Restler warned that holding off on short-term repairs could hamstring a larger revamp of the highway.
“I am disappointed and concerned about the safety of our community, about our ability to preserve the lifespan of the triple-cantilever for these 20 years, so that a bolder, more transformative solution can take place,” the pol said.
The funding shift was first brought up by the Council’s Finance Committee chairperson Justin Brannan, who also questioned the move.
“Has it been determined that, with the cantilever reaching the end of its useful life expectancy, is shifting the planned work from ’23 into the out years safe?” the Bay Ridge lawmaker asked.
DOT Commissioner Ydanis Rodriguez assured the politicians that the structure remains sound.
“There is no issue related to safety,” Rodriguez said. “None of this decision to move money puts anything at risk.”
According to DOT Associate Commissioner Elisabeth Franklin, the agency has all the money it needs and officials can always move the funds back around.
“We have left the funding in the inner years to do the contracts that we know we have to do now,” Franklin said. “The funding in the outer years can be moved back in as our monitoring continues, as we find work we need to do earlier.”
City and state officials struggled for years to figure out what to do with the highway’s triple-cantilever, which was set to become unsafe by 2025.
Former Mayor Bill de Blasio unveiled a scheme in August to extend its lifespan until 2040, by narrowing the lanes to reduce traffic loads, doing more maintenance work and repairs to shore up the structure, and installing sensors to catch and fine overweight trucks that cause outsize damage to the BQE.
This buys the city time to work with the state and locals on a larger revamp of the entire BQE corridor from the Verrazzano Bridge to the Kosciuszko Bridge.
It will take DOT a whole year to set up the new so-called weigh-in-motion sensors along the highway, and the agency aims to start fining heavy haulers by the end of 2022, said Franklin, adding that the new tech will help them better keep tabs on any deterioration.
“We are doing ongoing monitoring and the new weigh-in-motion legislation, the legislation to allow for automated enforcement of overweight trucks, is really going to help us with that,” the bureaucrat said. “Between that and then the ongoing monitoring of the structures, we’re keeping a close eye on the BQE.”
Rodriguez plans to meet with Restler and other local electeds about the larger vision for the BQE soon, but the Brooklyn pol asked for more regular updates on the road’s health every month.
“This is the area where I’m very concerned we’re not getting the responsiveness that we need. Is that a commitment that you’re prepared to make,” Restler asked.
“I will have no issue coordinating our meeting between your office and myself,” said Rodriguez in response. “But I prefer to say that we’re working with City Hall. Let’s see how we plan the level of coordination as we move forward.”
The mayor’s press office declined to comment.
