The Kosciuszko Bridge’s congestion is not improving despite more lanes.
At the celebration for the opening of the new $873 million Kosciuszko Bridge, New York Governor Cuomo flaunted how an increased number of lanes would speed up traffic by 65 percent.
Data compiled in September — the first full month of operation since the bridge’s second-span opened — reveals no improvement for drivers going from Queens to Brooklyn during rush hour and an average three mile per hour reduction in speeds for drivers headed to Queens, according to a study by independent consultant INRIX, first reported by the Wall St. Journal. Continue reading →
The Kosciuszko Bridge’s second span, which includes four new bike lanes and a pedestrian walkway, opens to traffic on Thursday as Governor Cuomo hosts a week of events in commemoration. Four lanes of Brooklyn-bound traffic will open and the first span will be reconfigured for five Queens-bound lanes on Thursday.
The original Kosciuszko Bridge was a truss bridge that opened in 1939 and was demolished in 2017 after the first span of the new cable-stayed bridge opened.
The new $873 million structure is being marketed by Governor Cuomo as “on budget” and opening four years ahead of schedule. Continue reading →
The site of “Under the K” park (courtesy of Public Work)
The plans to transform seven acres beneath the Kosciuszko Bridge into “a public park, cultural destination, and ecological hub” were unveiled last month by the North Brooklyn Parks Alliance.
The “Under the K” unveiling (courtesy of North Brooklyn Parks Alliance)
The ethos behind the design of the project draws contrast to “glamorous public spaces” like the Highline in favor of a “process-place that is firmly rooted in the local,” according to the presentation (PDF). Continue reading →
A visioning workshop that is open to the public to help plan the future park and green space under and around the new Kosciuszko Bridge will take place next week. The “Under The K” public workshop is being hosted by the North Brooklyn Parks Alliance and the landscape architects Public Work on Tuesday, March 21, at Rough Trade (64 N 9 St.); registration is free.
The end of the old Kosciuszko Bridge. Via Brooklyn Paper
So far this summer, New Yorkers have reacted to the demolition of the Old Kosciuszko Bridge in a variety of expressive ways. There were the illicit parties held on the Bridge ahead of the scheduled July demolition, and the group of urban vigilantes ready to defend the bridge from demise with wolves and swords.
The city itself decided on a more muted end to the 1939 span that crosses Newtown Creek, connecting Greenpoint to Maspeth, Queens, than these events, or even the Bridge’s namesake, Tadeusz Kościuszko, a Revolutionary hero in both Poland and the United States, might warrant. Instead of the scheduled July explosion, the main span of the bridge was lowered onto a barge in Newtown Creek.
Do you feel like things have been pretty quacked in Greenpoint this week? You’re not wrong. On Monday night, a leashed duck boarded the G Train, and as you can see from the video, he was not too pleased to be there.
All day yesterday (Tuesday) the main span of the Kosciuszko Bridge was lowered onto barges on Newtown Creek. The bridge segments will be barged out of the Creek today, from 10am to 12pm. The pieces will be taken to a recycling facility in New Jersey. The Newtown Creek Alliance has a handy timeline of the bridge’s demolition, and future plans for a park on the Queens side of the new bridge.
Below, the NCA has put together a map of the best viewpoints for today’s barging, which include the very end of Greenpoint Avenue, the Newtown Creek Nature Walk, under the Pulaski Bridge, and the end of Manhattan Avenue. If you’re one of the lucky seafaring few in a boat, there will be security zones in place during lowering and barging; boaters are required to stay a minimum 500 feet away from the working barges.
NYC sunset from The Brooklyn Barge. Photo: Megan Penmann
What happened this week besides the weather being steamier than a dirty monkey’s crotch and more stifling than a sweat lodge? Here’s the rude, sad and the fugly.
