
NYC Construction and the BQE
by Joel Chaffee
Monday, June 21st, 2010
New York, NY
Views: 10,718
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Construction in New York is ubiquitous, and mysterious. Sure, the
Department of Transportation (DOT) issues press releases about
upcoming and in progress projects. But try to find out what is going
on in any place of interest, and you enter a dead zone.
A friend and I came across an enormous project in the middle of
Broadway at West 4th Street, on June 11th. A large tube, perhaps
fifteen feet below street level, appeared in the dug-up patches. Not
electricity. Sewage? Secrets? A few days of calling the DOT for
information proved fruitless. Not that they didn't know; only that
they could not be reached.


Across the East River, there is talk of new construction on the
squalid BQE; though when you ride the mogul-strewn FDR or pretty much
the rest of the city, how much difference is there on the city's
highways?
The Brooklyn Paper is reporting on a "long overdue effort to shore up
and modernize the aging BQE." The DOT's wonderful announcement stated
that they were planning to "rehabilitate" the downtown Brooklyn
section of the Interstate, at a cost of a cool $255 million. And even
then, the BPaper quoted the DOT's Peter King as saying, "To the extent
that we can, we'll bring it up to standards. But sometimes it's not
possible."
But it is dangerous. "From 2004 to 2007, a total of 674 accidents were
reported between Tillary and Congress streets - a figure that is 10
times the statewide average," the article reported. And it is no less
dangerous to the areas the BQE traverses.
One might be inclined to assume that neighborhoods around the BQE have
higher rates of asthma, chronic bronchitis and other respiratory
illnesses. The NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DOH),
found this to be true in some areas, but not in others. Greenpoint
residents, where the BQE was first put into play connecting Queens and
Brooklyn at the Kosciusko Bridge, have less chance of having asthma
than the rest of the borough, and all of the city. In Williamsburg and
Bushwick, however, residents were almost twice as likely to have
asthma. The DOH did not directly trace the asthma to the Interstate,
but with the Earth itself sick from the fumes of automobiles, what
chance has Brooklyn?
Many people who live close to the BQE, from Greenpoint to Fort Green,
claim to have fresh dustings of black soot on areas near open windows.
(I suppose they should follow the advice I received from one of the
free doctors at the city health clinic when I myself complained of
respiratory problems: Close your windows, always.)
Whatever happens with the BQE - and it will be years before the
happening - the best that could come about is that community interests
are considered chiefly; with the vision of another Robert Moses or
two, but the sensibilities and optimism of George Washington Plunkitt
in an 1882 NYTimes: "Once let a man grow up amidst Brooklyn's
cobblestones, with the odor of Newtown Creek and Gowanus Canal ever in
his nostrils, and there's no place for him except Brooklyn." And may
God keep our nostrils.
in New York is ubiquitous, and mysterious. Sure, the
Department of Transportation (DOT) issues press releases about
upcoming and in progress projects. But try to find out what is going
on in any place of interest, and you enter a dead zone.
A friend and I came across an enormous project in the middle of
Broadway at West 4th Street, on June 11th. A large tube, perhaps
fifteen feet below street level, appeared in the dug-up patches. Not
electricity. Sewage? Secrets? A few days of calling the DOT for
information proved fruitless. Not that they didn't know; only that
they could not be reached.
Across the East River, there is talk of new construction on the
squalid BQE; though when you ride the mogul-strewn FDR or pretty much
the rest of the city, how much difference is there on the city's
highways?
The Brooklyn Paper is reporting on a "long overdue effort to shore up
and modernize the aging BQE." The DOT's wonderful announcement stated
that they were planning to "rehabilitate" the downtown Brooklyn
section of the Interstate, at a cost of a cool $255 million. And even
then, the BPaper quoted the DOT's Peter King as saying, "To the extent
that we can, we'll bring it up to standards. But sometimes it's not
possible."
But it is dangerous. "From 2004 to 2007, a total of 674 accidents were
reported between Tillary and Congress streets - a figure that is 10
times the statewide average," the article reported. And it is no less
dangerous to the areas the BQE traverses.
One might be inclined to assume that neighborhoods around the BQE have
higher rates of asthma, chronic bronchitis and other respiratory
illnesses. The NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DOH),
found this to be true in some areas, but not in others. Greenpoint
residents, where the BQE was first put into play connecting Queens and
Brooklyn at the Kosciusko Bridge, have less chance of having asthma
than the rest of the borough, and all of the city. In Williamsburg and
Bushwick, however, residents were almost twice as likely to have
asthma. The DOH did not directly trace the asthma to the Interstate,
but with the Earth itself sick from the fumes of automobiles, what
chance has Brooklyn?
Many people who live close to the BQE, from Greenpoint to Fort Green,
claim to have fresh dustings of black soot on areas near open windows.
(I suppose they should follow the advice I received from one of the
free doctors at the city health clinic when I myself complained of
respiratory problems: Close your windows, always.)
Whatever happens with the BQE - and it will be years before the
happening - the best that could come about is that community interests
are considered chiefly; with the vision of another Robert Moses or
two, but the sensibilities and optimism of George Washington Plunkitt
in an 1882 NYTimes: "Once let a man grow up amidst Brooklyn's
cobblestones, with the odor of Newtown Creek and Gowanus Canal ever in
his nostrils, and there's no place for him except Brooklyn." And may
God keep our nostrils.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Last updated by Joel Chaffee - Monday, June 21st, 2010 - New York, NY
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