Make your contribution now and help Gothamist thrive in 2023.City officials have indefinitely delayed a program to automatically ticket overweight trucks driving on the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway — allowing heavy big rigs to continue weighing down a crumbling stretch of the roadway.
But on Wednesday, several Brooklyn lawmakers said DOT officials briefed them on problems with the technology — and gave no timeline for the launch of the ticketing program.“Anything that furthers the deterioration of the roadway is of great consequence and of great concern,” New York State Assemblymember Jo Ann Simon told Gothamist. “I’m very frustrated that we weren’t told until now.”The sensors also aren’t even installed in both directions — only on the Queens-bound side of the roadway.
The issue is made public as the DOT prepares to make urgent repairs this spring to the badly deteriorated triple-cantilever section of the BQE, which is tucked beneath the Brooklyn Heights Promenade. The agency has already reduced the number of lanes in that section from three to two in an effort to extend its life.
DOT spokesperson Vin Barone said the agency is “rigorously monitoring” the deteriorating section and “working through remaining internal and external administrative processes” to launch the ticketing program.a set of options to rebuild the triple-cantilevered section of the BQE, including proposals to rebuild the roadway and surround it with more greenspace.“It really calls into question whether the strategy of moving ahead this way is ultimately going to be the right one,” Gounardes said.