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 (DGowanus)…
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 (DGowanus) 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
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.
Fill it in, don’t cover it.
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.
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?
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?
the church with the wonky cross atop its spire?
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.
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.
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.