Closing Bell: Van Brunt Traffic Back to Normal

A reader wrote in with this picture to tell us that the DOT opened Van Brunt and Degraw Streets to two-way traffic in the Columbia Street waterfront neighborhood yesterday after nearly a decade of “temporary” one-way street changes. Our tipster, a longtime neighborhood resident, said the project began about 10 years ago when the city started upgrading all the utilities and roads in the Columbia Street waterfront area.

Around that time, the DOT made several blocks in the hood one-way: Degraw between Van Brunt and Columbia and Van Brunt from Degraw to Hamilton. They also changed the direction of traffic on Summit Street between Hamilton and Columbia. But as of yesterday, the preconstruction traffic patterns have been restored. And recently, the city started building the greenway along Columbia Street, which is nearly finished.

“They even installed permanent traffic lights just last year at that intersection on Columbia, only to take them down a couple of days ago and replace them with a four-way stop,” said our tipster. “This affected truck traffic too, since all trucks must go on Van Brunt.”

The notice also indicates the B61 will return to its normal route, and there will be no more parking along that section of Van Brunt and on the northern side of Degraw.