DOT Delays BQE’s Ticketing Program that would Reduce the Overweight Trucks that Destroy the Aging Road

By Yehudit Garmaise

The ever-increasing number of large trucks rumbling down the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway (BQE) compromise the already crumbling roadway’s safety with the excessive weight. Still, city officials have indefinitely delayed a much-needed program that would automatically ticket them.

“Large trucks destroy our aging infrastructure,” which was built between 1944 and 1948, explained former Department of Transportation (DOT) Commissioner Hank Gutman, who blamed New Yorkers’ increased reliance on online shopping for the spiking number of big rigs on the BQE. 

In late August 2021, the DOT reduced the number of lanes on the BQE to reduce the traffic’s wear and tear on the roadway that most officials say needs “urgent repair.” 

Last year, DOT officials promised that by the end of 2022, the agency would install sensors that would ticket any trucks that exceed the federal legal limit of 80,000 pounds.

The DOT’s delay is the result of its efforts to “create calibration protocols for our weight system to ensure we can begin enforcement,” Vin Barone, the DOT’s first deputy press secretary, told BoroPark24.

“We have installed weigh-in-motion sensors along BQE Central, and we are working through remaining internal and external administrative processes to launch what will be a first-in-the-nation enforcement program against overweight trucks.”

The sensors will be installed on the Staten Island side of the roadway this spring, the DOT said.

A month ago, city officials unveiled three potential design plans for rebuilding the BQE that would be surrounded with beautiful green spaces on which to walk, bike, and scoot, the DOT’s extended public information meetings, delays, and design plans are likely wasting precious time.

“[The DOT’s delay of the installation of the BQE’s ticketing sensor program] is something about which I am very concerned,” said state Sen. Andrew Gounardes, who worried that the BQE’s roadway could crumble before the DOT breaks ground to rebuild.

“New Yorkers’ safety is DOT’s top priority,” Barone insisted. “The BQE triple cantilever remains safe.”

“The DOT is committed to launching maximum weight enforcement on the BQE cantilever as soon as possible,” said Barone.

photo credit: Flickr