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September 21, 2009

What to Do with the BQE Ditch

The Columbia Waterfront Association mentioned last week that a primary concern for the land use committee this fall will be the fate of the one-mile stretch of the BQE, known as The Ditch, that separates the Columbia Waterfront from Cobble Hill and Carroll Gardens. The Brooklyn Paper reported in 2008 that Representative Nydia Velazquez (D–Gowanus) had obtained $300,000 in public funds for a study to explore possible solutions. Ideas being thrown around at the time included the mayor's call for housing decks above the highway, or parks and pedestrian bridges. The Paper reported again last June that the Economic Development Corporation had much less ambitious concepts for The Ditch: planted buffers, new street furniture, sidewalk repairs, and other primarily aesthetic improvements. What would you like to see?
Fix the Ditch [Columbia Waterfront Association]
Locals Want BQE Cover-up [Brooklyn Paper]
City Plan for BQE: Less Clean, Less Green [Brooklyn Paper]
Image of early proposal by dlandstudio

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how 'bout a proper burial/funeral.

cover the darn thing and you'd seriously raise property values.

but pls make it a park.

Posted by: antidope at September 21, 2009 11:19 AM

a simple greenlawn park - keeps it open, easy to make and goes some way to offsetting the car fumes.

Posted by: dittoburg at September 21, 2009 11:23 AM

some greenery and nicer crosswalks would be great. it is truly a dismal stretch in an otherwise pretty area. the crosswalk around 3rd street(?) is hideous and looks like it's falling apart. $300k for idea gathering? scary to think how much the actual improvements would cost. yeeps.

Posted by: CG_ups at September 21, 2009 11:28 AM

This old gag is brought up every few years, whether its' the ditch in Cobble Hill or the elevated highway in Sunset Park. Where is the money coming from for this? The big dig cost Boston billions. Even if the mob doesn't get involved with this, it would still cost billions...

www.forgotten-ny.com

Posted by: Kevin Walsh at September 21, 2009 11:29 AM

Cover the Ditch and build a nice park on top

Posted by: His_Evil_Twin_Skippy at September 21, 2009 11:30 AM

covering the ditch would not be nearly as expensive as digging a tunnel ala Boston. The BQE is such a horror-show cutting right through residential areas without as much as sound barriers. Something really needs to be done now that we know that these communities are not simply vanishing off the face of the earth as Robert Moses hoped.

Posted by: Minard Lafever at September 21, 2009 11:41 AM

Tax-increment financing funded by the increased revenue from real estate taxes could fund part of this, but the state and Feds would have to pony up a lot to cover this. Love the idea.

Posted by: neilw at September 21, 2009 11:42 AM

"The Brooklyn Paper reported in 2008 that Representative Nydia Velazquez (D–Gowanus) had obtained $300,000 in public funds for a study to explore possible solutions."

$300,000 to "explore possibly solutions"? Here piggy, piggy....

Posted by: the chicken at September 21, 2009 11:43 AM

How about fixing the BQE!!

Posted by: Couger at September 21, 2009 11:46 AM

> The big dig cost Boston billions.

And worth every penny, no? I bet you Bloomie would find the money if a stadium was involved.

Posted by: DitmasSnark at September 21, 2009 11:55 AM

Robert Moses did the Big Dig back in the 1950's. Now we are looking for ways to bring the highway into the present. Covering parts of it with "green roofs" and creating sound barriers in other areas is the way to go. Whether our communities have the political clout to get this done is the question. I hope we don't have to wait for a disaster to see something done.

Posted by: Minard Lafever at September 21, 2009 11:59 AM

It would be great to cover the ditch and have a park on top, so there would be extra greenery and pedestrian access to the waterfront. It would work with my other dream of a trolley running from Red Hook to Greenpoint.

Posted by: Maly at September 21, 2009 12:02 PM

Seems like it's unanimous here that it should be a park. $300k to study what to do? Why not ask the residents and save the money to study engineering/structural costs to make it so. I would love to see a huge playground, another part being a soccer field and then some simple greenery like bushes, etc., knowing that trees aren't realistic since their roots have nowhere to go.

And then, how about taking back Hicks St. for local traffic rather than all the commuters who like to run red lights and put our kids in harms way?!?

Posted by: contempt at September 21, 2009 12:13 PM

We need the same kind of cover to be built over the prospect expressway- between 7th ave and 5th ave

As for the trolley comments above- you could run the trolleys from Sunset Park all the way to Greenpoint if you just followed the right of way of the Gowanus and the BQE. You could connect them to the trains that ran close to the waterfront the whole way through

Posted by: Park Place at September 21, 2009 12:20 PM

A new subway line to Red Hook.

Posted by: tscola at September 21, 2009 12:20 PM

Covering these roads will mean some nice vent systems. Love to see where they're gonna put them.

My partener designed the ones to the Battery Tunnel, see how big they are?

Posted by: denton at September 21, 2009 12:34 PM

This is a very informative website of the NYS DOT which is currently in the middle of several design options for what to do with the raised sections:

https://www.nysdot.gov/portal/page/portal/regional-offices/region11/projects/gowanus-project

Posted by: oldrte10 at September 21, 2009 12:47 PM

Flood it and make it a canal.

Posted by: Susan Elkins at September 21, 2009 12:58 PM

Take the trees and benches - cause I guarantee you that the BQE will remain the BQE (more or less as is) until well into our grandchildrens adulthood - if not longer.

Posted by: fsrg at September 21, 2009 1:53 PM

The grand plans will never come to fruition. (Plus, who want to swap BQE traffic noise for BQE traffic rerouting and construction noise for a few decades?) Maybe a modest noise-reduction plan and improvement of the crossings would help--especially the weird bridge down near the church.

Posted by: Carol Gardens at September 21, 2009 1:56 PM

why not, CG? the hard work is already done.

why do you need to re-route traffic? the bqe is done and not going anywhere. just drop a roof on it.

vent it with carbon monoxide eating rats and pigeons. or pipe the fumes into the gowanus canal and let the feds deal with it in the superfund. or reduce traffic on bqe by NOT venting it. or something.

Posted by: antidope at September 21, 2009 2:16 PM

the church with the wonky cross atop its spire?

Posted by: dittoburg at September 21, 2009 2:17 PM

CG:
In the long run the elevated sections are not sustainable. It is a rusting and leaking sieve. As it is, the BQE is already under construction year round. Do you see how much they spend every year on maintenance?

Posted by: oldrte10 at September 21, 2009 2:36 PM

Yeah, covering it doesn't seem feasible. Its not slide-two-pieces-of-tunnel-together-underwater Big Dig unfeasible.

But here's a stupid question...what's wrong with it the way it is? Do we really need to spend billions to make 3 minutes of the 7 minute walk to the "Columbia Waterfront district" from the F train slightly more attractive?

Posted by: HoneysuckleWeeks at September 21, 2009 3:07 PM

the cost to just rehab the cantilever's mile and a half is estimated to be a cool 300 million

https://www.nysdot.gov/bqedowntownbrooklyn

There is a study done to make a tunnel out of the entire section which would cost in excess of $10 billion dollars.

The cross harbor train tunnel would cost 4.5 billion and the tunnel under construction now for additional train service now under construction is over 3.5 billion.

I am sure the 300,000 includes money for neighborhood meeting and input.

DOT does a fairly good job of seeking neighborhood comments at the scoping meeting see above.

Posted by: smeyer418 at September 21, 2009 3:26 PM

Fill it in, don't cover it.

Posted by: mgm at September 21, 2009 9:02 PM

Cover it and put in a neighborhood park. The dlandstudio plan is excellent(check it out at dlandstudio.com) and would bring the Water Front neighborhood back to Brooklyn while creating much needed outdoor space.

Posted by: nyiloveyoubutyourbringingmedown at September 22, 2009 5:42 PM

« Brooklyn, the Frugal City? Checking In On 353 6th Street »

September 21, 2009

What to Do with the BQE Ditch

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