Brooklyn Boro

First new span at Kosciuszko Bridge opens for traffic Thursday night

April 27, 2017 By Paul Frangipane Special to the Brooklyn Daily Eagle
Construction on the new Kosciuszko Bridge as seen from Greenpoint. Eagle photo by Benjamin White
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The first span replacing the Kosciuszko Bridge will be open to traffic Thursday night.

In a project by the state and city to replace the Kosciuszko Bridge with two new spans in Brooklyn and Queens, the first section will be open to run traffic at 11:30 p.m. Thursday. There will be two-way traffic until the next span is complete, News 12 reported.

The second span that will open in 2020 will have three more lanes. As part of the project, some of the bridge will be demolished this summer.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo has been posting about the opening on his Facebook and Twitter accounts and will be posting at 8:30 p.m. Thursday on Facebook to celebrate the opening in live-time with a lights show.  “We’re building three new beautiful bridges that will stand the test of time. The first span opens tonight,” Cuomo posted on Twitter. “New York State will not be left behind when it comes to creating state-of-the-art transportation infrastructure.”

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He then posted a video of himself driving over the bridge midday Thursday.

A concrete barrier will be placed to direct vehicles from the old bridge to the new section, NY1 reported.

It is intended that one span of the bridge will go Brooklyn-bound and the other Queens-bound when it is completed.

The original Kosciuszko Bridge opened in 1939, supporting around 200,000 drivers daily.

This is the first bridge to be built in New York City since the Verrazano in 1964.

 


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