Why The I-278 Brooklyn-Queens Expressway in NEW YORK is FALLING APART And They Can't Fix It

so last fall I finally visited New York City America's largest city by any metric you want to use is cultural financial and entertainment Capital the true definition of a world-class City one of the most iconic cities on the entire planet now while most people come here to see the sights and do the touristy things I came here to see the infrastructure I came to see all the bridges all the tunnels studied the city's design its massive Transit network is highways and how the locals use all this stuff with the bridges and tunnels I was quite impressed they are some of the most incredible engineering Feats in America the transit network is unrivaled at least in the United States the walkability is top-notch it felt pretty good to stay in downtown Brooklyn and walk everywhere while my car was parked but then we have the highways New York New York I already made a video earlier discussing the Cross Bronx Expressway as this is the most famous of New York's gridlock highways and the one that I was already aware of when coming to the city but there's one that you don't hear as much about if you're not local that's even worse yes this highway is even worse than the Cross Bronx Expressway in fact after having lived in Southern California for four years traveled to Chicago Atlanta Miami and all of the other places you see on this map I'd say that this highway has the worst traffic in the entire United States that Highway my friends is the Brooklyn Queens Expressway commonly known as the BQE not only does it boast America's worst traffic a portion of it is actually falling apart and New York doesn't know how to fix it hit that like button subscribe if you love it and let's talk about this crumbling expressway so what exactly is the BQE the Brooklyn Queens Expressway or BQE as we call it is a section of the auxiliary Interstate Highway 278 running from on the Astoria neighborhood for Queens southbound through the western side of the borough and into the Brooklyn neighborhoods of Williamsburg downtown and Brooklyn Heights before becoming the Gowanus Expressway after an interchange with the unsigned Interstate 478 which is also the hul Kearney tunnel towards Lower Manhattan the BQE still maintains its original three by three lane configuration as far as capacity goes with the section in question haven't recently been reduced to four lanes for safety reasons because it is literally starting to fall apart it traverses some of the most densely populated territory on the entire interstate highway system just to give you some perspective Brooklyn has more people than every other city in the United States other than Los Angeles and New York City itself which leads us right into the first part of the discussion why is the BQE so congested all the time well the obvious answer is population taking a look at the New York City metro as a whole its population is a massive 20 plus million almost 7 million more than the Second Place Los Angeles the city itself is extremely dense among the most densely populated places on earth now as far as traffic flow and hot ways go take a look at a city like Los Angeles which is crisscrossed by multiple freeways or even better take a look at Houston or Dallas networks of which New York has more people than both of them combined if you then look at New York's interstates you'll notice that the main East-West Highway I-78 dies immediately after entering Manhattan there's a 80 merges into I-95 to cross the George Washington Bridge and journey across the city on the almost as bad Cross Bronx Expressway I-87 ends at i-278 i-495 travels through Long Island and queens but also dies immediately upon entering Manhattan other minor auxiliary interstates in the city include i-678 I-295 and Interstate 695 most locals will refer to these by their Expressway names rather than the number further out I-287 serves as a sort of bypass and partial Beltway for I-95 around the city now notice that when fully crossing the city there are only two routes available I-95 and i-27 78 which includes the BQE also bear in mind that with rare exception all freeways in New York are limited to the 3X3 configuration when it comes to capacity now New York does have a system of additional freeways called Parkways that are controlled access roadways but usually are not up to Interstate standards and cannot handle truck traffic and buses nor do any of them actually cross the city most of these Parkways pre-date the interstate highway system and their effectiveness is greatly reduced by the lack of shoulder width for breakdown meaning that a crash can easily shut down and back up portions of these roadways the Belt Parkway in particular is notorious for this consider yourself lucky if you've managed to drive on that roadway without coming to a complete stop at some point in New York interstates are called expressways to delineate the difference between them and the parkway system so on the traffic flow level all freaked crossing the city must use I-95 or i-278 any traffic going to or from Long Island to New Jersey and Point South or Northbound towards New England must either use the Cross Bronx the BQE or take a grueling drive through Manhattan I-95 is the most heavily used Highway in the entire United States carrying the weight of the entire east coast and over one third of the entire U.S population served by it here's a CUNY 3 learning through the Bronx and this is why you'll notice that the George Washington Bridge and Cross Bronx Expressway are almost always in the red on the map well i-278 is nowhere near the regional Powerhouse of Interstate traffic that I-95 is its problem is that it is the only Expressway in the entire 2.7 million strong Brooklyn meaning that it carries almost all Freight traffic that enters or exits Brooklyn as well as parts of queens and Staten Island it also is the only connection to Staten Island and the southbound connection between Long Island and New Jersey and further points on the mainland currently it is carrying approximately 140 000 vehicles per day so with all that traffic that i-278 is responsible for carrying it is also squeezed into a three by three lane configuration so what is currently happening with the BQE the BQE is a very outdated expressway from the 1940. over time a combination of Rose salt moisture and the overall burden on the roadway is causing it to crumble the highway has a 40 ton limit on trucks but this has been repeatedly violated also adding to its rapid deterioration its most prominent and unique feature is a triple cantilever with a pedestrian Promenade over it that offers stunning views of the Manhattan skyline from the wealthy Brooklyn Heights neighborhood that sits adjacent to this section of the roadway I had the opportunity to walk in this area while in New York and I can tell you firsthand that it is quite stunning but on the notion of the roadway things got so bad that in August 2021 one lane on each side of the roadway was shut down to hopefully keep the roadway intact until the solution can be found as a result the roadway now remains in a near constant state of gridlock 24 7. nights weekends holidays you name it I was in New York for Christmas and even on Christmas Day this roadway was quickly crowded before your kids could even wake up and grab their presents some predict that closing this Lane down would prolong the life of the roadway until 2036 While others say that it could last only five years before it may be forced to permanently close for emergency repairs government officials View do this as a worst case scenario in fear that catastrophic gridlock and supply chain issues that would occur if things got to this point various ideas have been floated as to how to address the issue while the current mayor Eric Adams is charged with finding a solution to the issue proposals to fix the BQE date back to the previous administration of Bill de Blasio the city council recommended a tear down and rebuild the structure as it was originally designed with the six lanes and non-existent shoulders Howard de Blasio called this plant a non-starter as well as any suggestions of a temporary roadway being built while the original was under repair he had a panel which recommended things such as pricing strategies to encourage traffic to use nearby Bridges and tunnels allowing small trucks on the Belt Parkway freeze Transit options into the Red Hook area of Brooklyn as well as new passenger ferries between Staten Island Brooklyn and Manhattan it also recommended the reduction from three to two lanes to prolong the life of the structure which appears to be the only one of these recommendations that was carried out back then New York City D.O.T recommends a design that would replace the existing structure with a new water Promenade that maintains three lanes of travel and also adds shoulders for emergencies unlike the current setup this new Promenade would be 35 feet wider than the current one apparently local Transit officials also support this design due to new connections to the Brooklyn and Manhattan Bridges as well as room provided for improvement to the parks and bike and pedestrian Connections in the area dot says this proposal would be the least disruptive to local streets by building a temporary elevated structure to operate for three years while the old roadway is rebuilt underneath whereas the city's proposal would put more trucks and cars on the streets of Brooklyn the cost is estimated to be 3.6 billion dollars this proposal has drawn intense opposition from the Brooklyn Heights neighborhood as they cite air pollution concerns from the traffic that will use it instead the Brooklyn Heights neighborhood proposes a temporary parallel route that will bypass this existing structure to the West over the Brooklyn Park parking area now there is yet another proposal floating around that suggests room moving the roadway entirely and replacing it with the boulevard of some sort supporters of this idea cite things such as the Embarcadero in San Francisco and the West Side Highway right across the river in Manhattan as examples of how this will work however the difference with the BQE in those roads is for one the population of Brooklyn and Queens far exceeds that of those areas none of them had the traffic counts that the BQE currently does also there were alternate routes nearby that could reasonably absorb the traffic recall that the only alternative to the BQE for Crosstown traffic is the Cross Bronx and the alternative for inbound traffic is the streets of Brooklyn and Freight cannot use the nearby Belt Parkway and then the sheer volume of freight that the BQE carries is through the roof making the industrial and Manufacturing sectors in two boroughs highly dependent upon it from moving their goods Paulie trottenberg the D.O.T commissioner stated a lot of trucks are delivering food Furniture Goods you name it here in Brooklyn and Queens and I like this quote from former MTA Capital Construction and President Michael horodniko who likened this idea to saying my arm hurts so let me just cut it off to stop it from hurting I suppose the supporters of this idea believe that the shelves and the stores that they shop in will magically resupply themselves or have we already forgotten all the crying and whining about supply chain back in 2020 imagine that in perpetuity in Brooklyn New York simply has not built the alternate infrastructure that would be necessary to move Goods through this area without the BQE and they're probably not going to do it anytime in the next quarter Century sorry folks but the goods have to be delivered and in America that means roads ninety percent of the time the most recent design unveiled in February of this year is something called astute this design keeps the Brooklyn Heights Promenade intact while expanding the lowest level to serve four lanes of traffic while transforming the second level that now carries Northbound traffic into a pedestrian and bike path the four lanes would include a shoulder area and also reduce BQE capacity around geraldemon Street a temporary roadway won't need to be constructed with this design and no traffic would have to be diverted onto Brooklyn streets as the BQE can still be used during construction the big question with this proposal is the reduction to four lanes according to the D.O.T regulatory bodies may require the roadway to be three lanes with the shoulder which would make this design difficult to implement without some major modifications for the next steps in the process the DLT is currently performing a comprehensive traffic study on the impact of four lanes versus six the overall goal is to rebuild the structure with as narrow of footprint as possible while also maintaining modern Interstate design standards it is also studying how to redesign the interchange with Atlantic Avenue my view on the issue is that New York City dropped the ball with this roadway over a decade ago Brooklyn Bridge Park was built in 2010 and the city already knew this roadway was falling apart yet they built apart adjacent to it instead they should have repaired the roadway first and then built the park just poor decision making on the part of the city on that front along with some good old-fashioned politics taking precedence over Common Sense what I think should happen is that the roadway be reconstruct the with the original six Lanes with a temporary structure for traffic while it's being rebuilt to prevent trucks and cars from being diverted onto the streets of Brooklyn ideally burying the highway would be the best look but financially it appears to be beyond what the city and state are willing to spend understandably so overall the stoop looks like a pretty ideal design if it could be done with six Lanes even if you have to get a waiver for 11 foot Lanes to fit them in there besides traffic doesn't move very fast on the BQE anyway but if it comes down to a choice of six Lanes with no shoulder or four lanes with a proper shoulder then the four lanes is the better of the two even then it appears that the feds will be unlikely to allow this roadway to be reduced to four lanes now what do I think will actually happen with all the opposing views the political fears and gridlock The nembis Business Leaders all wanting it to be done their way I wouldn't be surprised if nothing is done and the structure eventually is shut down or collapses at which point it will finally be politically acceptable to just rebuild a thing as originally proposed by the DLT in the first Place similar to what it took for Action to finally be taken on the West Side Highway so either the folks of New York can deal with the less painful rebuild now or Kick the Can down the road and wait for it to collapse and get a very painful Taste of life without the BQE while it's being rebuilt with no temporary roadway to keep trucks off these Brooklyn streets but hopefully I'm wrong on that prediction in the meantime if you're traveling to New York as recommended on my rules of driving a New York video continue to avoid the BQE at all costs in fact just take the train or ride your bike your bike or scooter might move faster than the cars on the BQE but what do you guys think have you ever traveled on the BQE if so what was your experience why did you drive on the BQE instead of using Transit which of these proposals to address the situation do you prefer let me know in the comments thanks for watching see you on the next one coming soon to a towel near you

Channel: Mileage Mike

Views: 99,955

Keywords: bqe falling apart, i-278 new york, new york highways, fixing the bqe, bqe traffic, new york city traffic, new york driving, new york city expressways

Id: aV9N3RNh0Tk

Length: 14min 5sec (845 seconds)

Published: Thu Jun 08 2023