Aging Brooklyn-Queens Expressway to Get $1.7B in Repairs

Tuesday, November 29, 2016 7:01 am | < 1 Minute Read

Traffic passes along a foggy Brooklyn Queens Expressway, Wednesday, Dec. 23, 2015 in New York. A weather pattern partly linked with El Nino has turned winter upside-down across the U.S. during a week of heavy holiday travel, bringing spring-like warmth to the Northeast, a risk of tornadoes in the South and so much snow across the West that even skiing slopes have been overwhelmed. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan) — Traffic passes along the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway in New York City. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan)

Transportation officials in New York City have announced plans to spend $1.7 billion to repair a one-and-a-half mile stretch of the aging Brooklyn-Queens Expressway.

The project is expected to be the most expensive ever undertaken by the New York City Department of Transportation.

Recent inspections have found that the much-maligned highway would require emergency repairs in the future without a major overhaul within the next decade.

NYCDOT Commissioner Polly Trottenberg says the BQE is one of the city’s most vital corridors, with roughly 140,000 vehicles traveling on the highway each day.

Transportation officials hope to keep lanes open during the repairs. Construction is expected to begin in two years.

City officials say it will take approximately five years to complete the project.

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