Truck Diversions from BQE “Will Directly Affect District,” CB12 Board Says

By Yehudit Garmaise

The Department of Transportation’s repairs on the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway (BQE) will “directly affect our district,” Community Board 12 District Manager Beri Spitzer said at the board’s meeting on Sept. 30. 

In addition to BQE construction that will affect the many Boro Parkers “who use the BQE routinely,” but the DOT, to make some initial repairs, will be diverting tens of thousands of trucks to local neighborhoods, including “our district,” over three weekends, starting in October, Spitzer said.

“The DOT will be shutting down Queens-bound some weekends, and Staten-Island bound other weekends,” Spitzer said. “Some closures will reduce two-lane roads to one lane-roads with detours that will be sent into Districts 7, 10, 12, and 14.”

When Assemblyman Robert Carroll (District 44) and Councilmember Shanana Hanif (39th District) hosted a well-attended meeting on Sept. 22 at P.S. 130 at 713 Caton Avenue, many Brooklynites were not happy about the DOT’s proposed plans to divert a deluge of trucks into their residential neighborhoods.

Many residents in the Kensington area who were unhappy with the DOT’s current plan spoke out against the truck detour the DOT is proposing on East 5th Street and Caton Avenue, which local residents say cannot handle a large influx of tractor-trailor trucks that will substantially decrease safety and greatly increase traffic to the degree that roads will remain “at a standstill,” Spitzer said.

Instead, Kensington residents suggested that the overflow of truck traffic be diverted to McDonald Avenue, which was the route the DOT originally had chosen while the agency worked on the BQE.

“The DOT said it will take that under advisement,” Spitzer said. “They are working on it, and Assemblyman Carroll and the council members said they would stay on DOT’s case about the construction, which will start very soon.”

To further work out the traffic-diversion issues surrounding the BQE-repairs, the DOT will be hosting upcoming virtual meetings and workshops in which interested residents can participate.

Readers can find information about the DOT’s meetings about the BQE repairs at BQEvision.com/events.