In case you haven’t noticed the NYC DOT has begun construction of the seven bridges on the belt parkway. Their overly dramatic all caps and red title page about the project means they mean business and you should pay attention!
Over the next five years, the New York City Department of Transportation plans to spend roughly half a billion dollars on bridge rehabilitation to restore seven bridge on the Belt Parkway in Brooklyn.
According to Department of Transportation, the reconstruction of the bridges is necessary to rectify current substandard conditions in order to meet state and federal requirements. The work began last month and is scheduled to be finished by October 2014. Most of the bridges, which date back to the World War II Roosevelt era, “have passed their useful life.”
The most dramatic change will be the Mill Basin Bridge. The Mill Basin Bridge is now a movable draw bridge with a clearance over mean high water of 35 feet. The new structure will not be a draw bridge, but a fixed structure with a 60 foot clearance over mean high water. The new construction will result in increased sight distances, wider lanes, and the inclusion of safety shoulders in both directions. A new fender system will be installed to protect the bridge substructure from marine traffic.
The Gerritsen Inlet Bridge was built in 1940. It is a nine span structure over Gerritsen Inlet, with a clearance of 35 feet above the Mean High Water mark. The new structure will be three spans over the Inlet, with the 35 foot clearance maintained.
To compound the traffic and delays the Department of Design and Construction is also about to start a project on the Belt Parkway from Coney Island Avenue to Knapp Street. The project includes new drainage, guardrails, median and repaving. Then, DOT is also reconstructing the East 8th Street Bridge. This is the overpass that goes from Coney Island Avenue and Guider Avenue over the Belt to access the Belt westbound. The problem is all these projects will be running simultaneously, so if you sit in traffic at one construction site you must be prepared, another one is around the corner. If better planning was done this would not be happening.
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Would be better if they simply did one project at a time, close that specific stretch of highway, worked on it 24/7, let everyone know to detour and avoid that area and be done with it as quickly as possible. Alas DOT will instead string the messes out for years.
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[...] For more details about the changes, check out the DOT’s plans (pdf), as well as GerritsenBeach.net’s report. [...]
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So much for the Elephant Caves. Curious if they still have the US Army Switch Boards in there. Sneaky Goverment thinking they could hide all that with us Ratts Jumping off the Bridge during the summer. On the bright side see a couple of area’s where a nice rope swing can be mounted on the shallow ends.
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They could also do a temporary bypass as they did on th FDR depending on how long this will take.
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That’s very nice of course that they are reconstructing the bridges, but this isn’t going to solve the traffic jams problem. How about adding an extra lane, instead of just symply renovating? This can be easily done throughout the entire length of the highway, except for the bridges. Here they would require effective engineering solution. But it can be done. What is the point of redecorating the highway that can’t handle the traffic??
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I do not understand they are not improving the traffic situations at all. All they are doing is making nicer bridges that are so outdated that noone feels safe driving over them. The Belt Parkway is so inundated with pot holes it is the worst parkway in LI or the city.
It seems there is no other way for me to get to work since i work right off Ocean Parkway.
I agree that more lanes should be added with all this work.
Marc
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hah, I am so sick of the Belt Parkway that now I go local to get where I am going, its sad that doing Ocean Parkway or Linden Blvd. gets me where I need to go faster than the belt.
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more lanes wont solve anything, they need to have better on and off ramps….people not knowing how to get on a highway is the major cause of traffic.
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