Brooklyn Residents Face Increased Noise, Pollution, and Traffic as BQE Repairs Begin Within Weeks

By Yehudit Garmaise

Brooklyn residents staying in the city may want to buy some earplugs in the few weeks before the city’s Department of Transportation (DOT) begins its urgent interim repairs on three decaying sections of the triple cantilever of the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway (BQE).

The upcoming repairs on the BQE’s decks, columns, and beams will not go unnoticed, as the work requires noisy jackhammers to remove deteriorated concrete and add steel plates to secure the structure.

For three weekends, starting on Saturdays at 2am and going until 4am on Monday, the DOT will be doing the prep work for the interim repairs that DOT workers will complete at night for seven to eight weeks from July to October, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported.

“Overnight jackhammering for multiple months just feet away from people’s homes will have a significant impact on quality of life,” said City Councilmember Lincoln Restler, who wants to ensure his constituents are kept informed of when the DOT will be working.

This summer’s interim repairs, which include work at the Clark Street Fan Plan are, the BQE deck at Grace Court, and the foundation of the Joralemon Street Garage, will the DOT’s first efforts to secure the 70-year-old BQE, which officials are planning to completely redesign in the coming years.

For DOT workers to complete their initial efforts on the BQE this summer and fall, most of the busy highway between Atlantic Avenue and Sands Street will be closed and traffic will be rerouted to Atlantic, Third, Fourth, and Flatbush Avenues throughout the dates the DOT will soon announce.

At a recent virtual DOT workshop, Brooklyn residents worried that the noise and vibrations of constant jackhammering would keep them up all night.

In response, Tanvi Pandya, the executive director of BQE, Design Build, and Emergency Contracts at the DOT, said the agency would “do our darndest” to keep reduce the noise.

The DOT will set up decibel meters and check them every night to ensure the work on the BQE adheres to NYC’s noise code, Pandya said.

In addition, the DOT, which plans to use sound-absorbing blankets in the areas in which they work, also will equip their jackhammers with noise-reducing mufflers.