Newest BQE Repair Plan Calls For $11B Tunnel

NEW YORK CITY — As locals and lawmakers grapple with how best to fix the crumbling and crucial Brooklyn-Queens Expressway without sacrificing the iconic Promenade above, City Council suggested building an $11 million tunnel underneath it.

City Council released Monday the a report on recommendations from engineering firm Arup one day before a City Council hearing on the BQE's future and weeks after Mayor Bill de Blasio's panel issued its own set of recommendations.

“Frustrated by delays and half-baked plans, the Council hired its own engineering firm to determine the best way to spend billions of dollars to rebuild this vital roadway," said Speaker Corey Johnson in a statement.

"This is not just about rebuilding a highway, this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to build the city we deserve and need in the future."

The report explores two preferred options out a potential seven plans for reconstruction and repairs of the BQE.

The $3.5 billion option calls for a capped highway, a street level roadway with a deck over it to support an expansion of Brooklyn Bridge Park, that would take roughly six years to build.

The pricier option is an $11 billion tunnel to connect the Gowanus Expressway to South Williamsburg's Bedford Avenue with new open space above it in Cobble Hill and Clinton Hill.

New York City has $1.7 billion budgeted for the BQE revamp, but additional funding could come from the state.

How best to fix the BQE has been up for debate since the Department of Transportation first released plans — which included building a temporary highway and closing the Promenade for six years — in September 2018.

Several of the community groups who protested those DOT plans— among them A Better Way, the Brooklyn Heights Association and the Cobble Hill Association — threw their support behind the City Council proposal.

“The community has been calling on the city to find a better way to rebuild the BQE since the moment the DOT unveiled its ill-conceived” said A Better Way organizer Hilary Jager.

"We are grateful to the Speaker and the City Council for taking this critical step."