Replacing the Brooklyn Queens Expressway (click photos)
Nearing 65 years old, the stacked Expressway will need replacing sometime soon and what to do with 125,000 vehicles during construction poses a problem.
Built on a hillside between busy port buildings and Brooklyn Heights, the cantilevered highway was a novel approach to limited space where real estate values drove the design. The port buildings are gone and Fulton Street has very little traffic now.
Replacing the BQE Expressway would be done in phases and new construction would step up the hill. The southbound lanes would be relocated to a lowered stretch of former Fulton Street with a protective platform to allow building the new expressway above. A temporary Fulton would run parallel beside the old location.
The Northbound lanes would then shift to the new expressway structure so the old lanes can be replaced. Once construction is complete, over a long weekend closure, the temporary lanes are shifted back to their new and wider location serving New Yorkers for the next 100 years.