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| Linden Boulevard Detour |
Update, July 13, 2022: Also see a second article on Streetsblog, posted today: "Community Leaders Slam DOT for Planned BQE Detours."
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A Department of Transportation (DOT) proposal would temporarily reroute all trucks and cars from the Prospect Expressway onto E. 5th Street and then left onto Caton Avenue to facilitate repair work on the BQE. The rerouting would be done at night and on three weekends in 2023 from March through October.
DOT made a presentation to Community Board 2's Transportation & Public Safety Committee on June 16th (on YouTube here, starting at 1:02:04) and to Community Board 6's Transportation/Public Safety Committee on June 21st (on YouTube here). It didn't, however, do that for Community Board 7, the district that E. 5th Street and a portion of Caton Avenue are in.
In the article "Carmageddon Likely from BQE Repair Work as DOT Will Detour Trucks into Residential Neighborhoods," Streetsblog reports
"One major eyebrow-raiser in the plan: When Queens-bound lanes are closed, freight traffic will be rerouted along Linden Boulevard after a circuitous detour from the highway’s Prospect Expressway exit around Prospect Park and to the east via Caton Avenue."
Yesterday, Robert Carroll, New York State Assemblymember for the 44th Assembly District, shared his reaction on social media:
"The East 5th St and Caton Ave truck detour during the planned weekend and night closures of the BQE triple cantilever is unacceptable.These residential blocks cannot bear the burden of all this traffic. Every community should help carry the load. I’ll be writing a letter and discussing alternate routes with NYC DOT to make sure this plan doesn’t go into effect when construction starts in March."
Today, he followed up with this post:
"After the announcement of NYC DOT’s plan to detour the vast majority of the BQE’s trucks during the closure of the BQE triple cantilever - I immediately wrote a letter and called DOT to express my concern and proactively devise a better plan.
Know that this plan is only a proposal, and my office will do everything in our power to make sure all of Brooklyn shoulders this truck traffic and not just Windsor Terrace and Kensington."
This is Assemblymember Carroll's letter to DOT:
