Brooklyn Heights Promenade May Close For 6 Years Amid BQE Repairs

BROOKLYN HEIGHTS, NY — Brooklynites may soon have to take their scenic strolls somewhere else. The iconic Brooklyn Heights Promenade could close for six years while the ailing highway underneath it undergoes crucial repairs.

The Department of Transportation unveiled two options Thursday for fixing a stretch of the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway from Atlantic Avenue to Sands Street. The elevated artery running through Brooklyn Heights is deteriorating and has a crash rate greater than 10 times the statewide average in certain spots, according to a DOT presentation.

"The challenge we face is how really to completely replace, rehabilitate this aging obsolete structure while trying not to create just terribly difficult, nightmarish traffic scenarios for not only Brooklyn — Brooklyn, Queens, Staten Island," Transportation Commissioner Polly Trottenberg told reporters Thursday, according to amNewYork.

The fixes will require a temporary roadway to keep traffic moving while the project proceeds, the DOT says. The city's preferred solution is a six-lane highway at the same height as the promenade, which sits on the top of a triple-cantilever structure with two levels of traffic underneath.

That option would cause the least disruption to traffic, take the least time (six years) and cost the least (up to $3.6 billion). But it would create a "dramatic community impact," including the closure of much of the promenade during construction, the DOT says.

First opened in 1950, the 1,800-foot walkway is a beloved attraction that offers sweeping views of Manhattan. It's also situated above Brooklyn Bridge Park.

The alternative is to repair the highway lane by lane, requiring full closures on 24 weekends and overnight lane closures over four and a half years. The latter could cause huge traffic backups or divert vehicles into the surrounding neighborhoods, the DOT says.

The incremental approach would not include potential community benefits of the elevated roadway, the DOT says, such as the possibility of widening the promenade by about 35 feet. It would also take longer (more than eight years), cost more (up to $4 billion) and come with less certainty that the work would finish on time, the DOT says.

The work won't start until at least 2020, but the DOT's outreach will start next week with a public meeting set for 5:30 p.m. Sept. 27 at 1 Metrotech Center.

The promenade's potential closure infuriated at least one high-profile Brooklyn Heights resident: MTA Chairman Joe Lhota.

"I always wondered what would turn me into a Community Organizer. This is it," Lhota wrote in a now-deleted tweet Friday morning.

"NIMBY (and proud of it)," he added.

(Lead image: A person walks along the Brooklyn Heights Promenade in June 2016. Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)