Community Board 2 Transportation Meeting Recap

Today we’re pleased to run the first of our Community Board reports by and for the community…

There were two public hearings concerning new licenses for outdoor cafes at last night’s Community Board 2 Transportation Committee meeting. Both owners made a presentation and there was an opportunity for anyone to speak either in favor or against. There was no one other than the owner for the one at 82 Washington Avenue, Mojito Cuban Cuisine (above), and one person raised a question about the sidewalk and bad weather for Deniz at 662 Fulton Street. Deniz’s representative suggested that when its bad weather the sidewalk café will be closed. The committee recommended approval of both licenses. They will be voted on by the full Board at the next full Board Meeting in June.

The next item on the agenda was a presentation by the Bridge Division of the NY City Department of Transportation. A major repair and renovation of the Brooklyn Bridge is planned to begin in the fall and be completed in approximately 3 and ½ years. The renovation will result in partial closing of at least one of the two road ways during most weeknights and 24 closings of the Bridge on weekends. The Bridge will always maintain its east bound (Brooklyn Bound) lanes-even if they have to be on the west bound roadway of the Bridge. Obviously the west bound (Manhattan) lanes would be closed and traffic diverted to either the Manhattan Bridge or the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel. When the diversion is in effect there will be 5 westbound lanes of the Manhattan Bridge available. Traffic mitigation and significant disruption may occur. Throughout the construction on the Brooklyn Bridge the pedestrian and bicycle paths on the Bridge will be maintained at all times.

More news about the bridge construction and a new street plaza for Schermerhorn Street on the jump…

As part of the renovation the completed renovation will provide for two lanes westbound to the FDR instead of the current one and there will be two lanes eastbound at Cadman Plaza (recognizing what occurs anyway). Also eastbound the left lane at Tillary Street off the Brooklyn Bridge will be two lanes-also recognizing what actually happens. There will also be reconstruction of three access road bridges (one in Manhattan and two in Brooklyn) bringing them more up to code and replacing worn roadway and subsurface structure. The intent is to use precast replacement parts as much as possible to limit disruption. The entire Bridge will be repainted. The repainting area will be tented and meet all federal, state and local standards including paint issues and noise issues (there is a newly enacted noise limitation regulation and the contractors are expected to adhere to these). A Community Liaison has been appointed: Hugh Smith of the Sam Schwartz consulting company.

Staging on the Brooklyn side will be at parking lots near the bridge and under the Brooklyn Bridge near the Brooklyn Tower (where the compressors and vacuums for the painting on this side of the River will be located). The people from DOT admitted that you can’t do construction without noise but they will do their best to keep it within the law and reason. The Deputy Mayor has convened a high level group to coordinate this activity with all the other activity in the area including both the State DOT and the Brooklyn Bridge Park Development Corporation with instructions to make this happen with everyone talking to each other to make it work as smoothly as possible.

The contracts for the Brooklyn Bridge repair are out for bid and they expect them to be awarded in the fall with work to actually begin shortly thereafter. The costs are estimated to be between $250 and $550 million. The presentation is not currently available on the NYC DOT site but DOT says it will do more community outreach shortly. This is a lot of work and will cause significant disruption. A lot of planning has gone in to planning this (including looking at some way to incentivize people to use the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel instead of the bridges) but it’s anticipated that only 10% of the cars will use the BBT instead of the free bridges.

Finally NYC DOT and the Court Street -Schermerhorn BID announced there will be a street Plaza at the Northeast Corner of Schermerhorn and Hoyt Streets- separated from the street by planted planters to give more space for pedestrians and prevent illegal parking.