State Cancels Plans to Rebuild the Long Overdue BQE

Last Updated on Thursday, 09 February 2012 13:52 Written by WABC-NY Thursday, 09 February 2012 13:42

New York - In his state of the state address, Governor Cuomo promised to accelerate construction to rebuild crumbling bridges.

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“32% of bridges are rated deficient,” Governor Cuomo said.

Among the worst is the one-and-a-half mile stretch of the Brooklyn Queens Expressway: a notorious triple-decker pot-holed, patched up highway in Brooklyn Heights, long-overdue for a major rehab.

But the state Department of Transportation suddenly decided to cancel plans to move ahead on rebuilding the BQE.

It’s a decision that meant the loss of hundreds of millions of dollars in federal highway funds.

Anyone who drives the nearly 60-year-old stretch of the BQE is aware of the growing patchwork of metal netting to keep the crumbling concrete from falling on cars.

“I drive it all the time. We know it’s coming to the end of its useful life,” City Council Public Safety Chair Peter Vallone said.

“Serious action needs to be taken and rather than do that, they decided to take their money and go someplace else, and that is not the decision that’s going to keep us safest that’s for sure,” Councilman Vallone said.

The state Department of Transportation insist the BQE is structurally sound.