NYC DOT to Start Construction on BQE in March of 2023

In a briefing to Brooklyn’s Community Board 6, New York City’s Department of Transportation said that work on the aging Brooklyn Queens Expressway will start in about nine months, in March of 2023.

As has extensively been reported, former Mayor Bill de Blasio was the first to announce the construction project, but little additional info as to how he will improve it, instead just highlighting how the crumbling roadway is in dire need of repair. The additional information was passed down to Mayor Eric Adams to deal with, and after a few months of delayed planning, and some funding for the project removed from the budget, the city now appears ready to enter the construction stage.

The work will send thousands of vehicles onto local roadways as the construction will require the highway to be closed for an undisclosed number of nights, and over weekends as well, StreetsBlog reported, citing information the DOT’s panel shared with Community Board 6 last week.

The exact details and lane closures are still being worked out, but the weekend closures will begin on Saturday at 2 am and last until Monday at 4 am.

The traffic will be diverted to local streets which will likely create traffic nightmares for residents and other drivers passing the area, but the DOT said its message to the world will be “stay out of here,” Tanvi Pandya, the DOT’s head engineer on the BQE project, said.

The DOT will have a “heavy presence” of Traffic Enforcement Agents to help mitigate the traffic, and hopefully, avoid crashes and other arising issues. “We will encourage the public well in advance to avoid this area, and encourage them to use alternate routes,” Pandya said.