"Imagine walking over the Brooklyn Bridge and under a truck flyover," Cindy McLaughlin, co-founder of Off-Ramp NYC, told Streetsblog on October 1, after NYC DOT posted new renderings of its plan for the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway.
Her complaint is about a bridge walk in Dumbo, not the Promenade. That points to the main thing about this plan for Brooklyn Heights. The city chose to keep the triple cantilever and the Promenade on top of it. To repair them, it is moving the construction downhill and north, onto Furman Street and the pocket parks between the bluff and the Brooklyn Bridge approach. Those spots will carry the project from an expected 2029 start until sometime before 2040. The city has also opened a short window for comments on what its environmental review should measure, and that window closes November 23.
The cantilever stays. So does its shape.
DOT is planning a rehabilitation, not a replacement. DOT says the highway will not be widened or have its interchanges changed. It would keep operating as it does today, with two lanes in each direction. The one exception is a short stretch between the Manhattan Bridge and just south of Sands Street, where the Staten Island-bound side has three full lanes. The October 2 environmental notice covers roughly 1.5 miles from Atlantic Avenue to Nassau Street and 21 structures. One of those is the 0.4-mile triple cantilever, which starts at Joralemon Street and ends at Washington Street. At the cantilever, the notice keeps the current lane widths, shoulders, clearances and ramp alignments. Only one structure is fully replaced at the top: the deck of the Columbia Heights overpass, whose north abutment would also be moved and rebuilt.
The Promenade is part of that structure, and DOT says the project is meant to "repair and protect" it. During construction the agency plans to keep portions of the Promenade open at all times "to the extent feasible." DOT has not yet published a pedestrian access plan for the construction years.
A few smaller details in the notice touch specific places. The city would take the vacant part of 25 Joralemon Street that sits inside the BQE structure, but not the occupied building just east of the highway. Small strips of mapped parkland next to the roadway would need alienation, which means approval from the State Legislature and a home rule message from the City Council.
Where the work goes instead
Traffic has to go somewhere while the cantilever is repaired, so DOT would build two temporary highways next to it. The first is a two-level bypass inside the Furman Street right-of-way, running from just north of Atlantic Avenue to Columbia Heights, below the height of the Promenade. DOT's project page says it would be no higher than today's Queens-bound level. The second carries Queens-bound traffic only. It would run from Columbia Heights to just before the Manhattan Bridge, passing over the existing BQE and the Brooklyn Bridge approach. DOT labels both routes "illustrative" and says they will be refined as public engagement continues.
Streetsblog reports that the new double-decker would sit much closer to Brooklyn Bridge Park and the apartment buildings on Furman Street than the current highway does. Its reading of DOT's renderings names the open spaces the route would affect:
- Squibb Park, at the top of the walk down to the waterfront
- Hillside Dog Park
- Anchorage Plaza
- Clumber Corner
- Bar and Grill Park
- Adam Yauch Park
- Harry Chapin Playground, which would be removed and later restored, according to DOT
The city's own environmental filing points the same way. DOT found the project may have substantial effects in three areas: open space, historic and cultural resources, and construction. Among the construction effects it lists are shadows, noise, air quality, visual resources and neighborhood character. The project page adds parking, sidewalks, bike routes, views and access, and it promises a community liaison during construction.
A decade on a schedule that is still moving
The official dates in the October 2 notice are short: construction expected to begin in 2029 and finish before 2040. DOT also says it will look for ways to shorten that. The Brooklyn Eagle reported a more detailed sequence from the August 24 announcement. It is preliminary, and its dates do not all line up with the newer notice.
| Phase | Preliminary timing reported in August 2026 |
|---|---|
| Approvals | Through the end of 2028 |
| Utilities and Columbia Heights overpass | Start of 2029 to mid-2031 |
| Bypass construction and traffic shifted onto it | 2030 to 2032 |
| Rehabilitation of the original BQE | 2032 through 2040 |
| Traffic back on the repaired highway | Third quarter of 2040 |
On that sequence, traffic would run on the bypass for close to a decade. Streetsblog's reading of the 2029 to 2040 window is that the bypass will stand for more than a decade at minimum. The environmental review timing also varies by source. DOT's project page shows a Draft EIS in late 2027 and a Final EIS in early 2028. The mayor's August announcement said summer 2028.
DOT estimates the cost at $3.5 billion to $4 billion. About $1.6 billion is already in the City Capital Plan, and more is to be added as needed. The city is not seeking federal money for the city-owned stretch. It still needs City and State approvals. These include a land-use review for City Map changes, State legislative approval for the parkland alienation, and a City Council home rule message.
What is already holding the structure together
Some changes are already in place on the structure. In 2021 the cantilever went from three lanes to two in each direction. DOT says this cut traffic load and vibration, but it did not stop the materials from deteriorating. Automated weigh-in-motion enforcement now runs in both directions on the city-owned section. Sensors in the road and cameras catch trucks over the legal weight limits, and each violation costs $650. Queens-bound enforcement started November 13, 2023, and Staten Island-bound enforcement followed on June 22, 2025.
The Staten Island-bound side shows the clearest result. DOT counted 4,894 overweight trucks in April 2025. By December 2025, after enforcement began, the count was 1,981, a drop of 60 percent. DOT's project page says the highway is currently safe because of targeted interim repairs, overweight-truck enforcement and the two-lane configuration. The same page says these steps do not cover the long-term repairs, and that a larger project is needed. DOT's technical record also includes vibration monitoring on the structure since 2017.
The disagreement is about the bypass
Local responses to the August announcement agree on one point and differ on the method. The Brooklyn Heights Association welcomed the decision not to widen the cantilever or go back to three lanes. It named the bypass as its first concern, noting that the same approach was rejected under the de Blasio and Adams administrations. "Less expensive and less disruptive ideas have been proposed which deserve serious consideration," the association said. It also warned that the plan "locks in the BQE until 2080."
State Sen. Andrew Gounardes, Assemblymember Jo Anne Simon and Councilmember Lincoln Restler issued a joint statement. They praised the choice to repair the cantilever within its existing footprint, but said they were concerned about "the damaging impact of temporary highways in our dense neighborhood." They asked the city to look at new connections to Brooklyn Bridge Park and to set a timeframe for retiring the highway. Kelly Carroll, executive director of the Atlantic Avenue BID, called the plan a missed opportunity. Her concern was that it leaves the BQE in place and does nothing about the Atlantic Avenue interchange. According to Streetsblog, that on-ramp is set to be rebuilt, not closed.
Each of these responses circles the same choice. Keeping the cantilever's footprint unchanged means building a temporary highway beside it. For about a decade, that highway sits over Furman Street and near the parks on the list above.
What scoping decides, and how to take part
Scoping is the step where the public comments on the Draft Scope of Work. That document sets the methods the Draft EIS will use to study effects like open space, shadows and noise. The draft scope already notes that rebuilding the roadway may temporarily restrict access to parks. Comments on what gets measured at Squibb Park, Hillside Dog Park or Harry Chapin Playground belong in this phase, before the analysis is written.
- In person: Tuesday, November 10, 2026, 6:30 to 8:30 p.m., New York City College of Technology, 300 Jay Street. Register at nyc.gov/bqe.
- Virtual: Thursday, November 12, 2026, 6:30 to 8:30 p.m., on Zoom. Register at nyc.gov/bqe.
- Written comments: due by the end of the day on Monday, November 23, 2026. Submit through the comment form at nyc.gov/bqe, by email to [email protected], or by mail to NYC Department of Transportation, Division of Bridges, BQE Central Project Team, Attention: Albert Silvestri, 55 Water Street, 5th Floor, New York, NY 10041.
- Accommodations: requests for interpreters, language help or mobility assistance must be made at least ten business days before the meetings.
The Environmental Assessment Statement, the Positive Declaration and the Draft Scope of Work can all be downloaded from the project site.
If you own a home near Furman Street, Columbia Heights or Joralemon Street and want to talk through how a 2029-to-2040 construction schedule could affect your own timing, or a sale you are handling as an executor, Ronit Abraham can review the details of your property with you. Request a complimentary market or probate consultation.
