One-Way Toll Contributes to Elevated Highway’s Condition
By Odelia Bitton
Brooklyn Eagle
GOWANUS — In the wake of the fatal collapse of the I-35 bridge in Minneapolis, news reports about the poor condition of the Brooklyn Bridge have brought fears of that tragedy close to home.
The iconic bridge was one of only three run by the New York City Department of Transportation to be given a poor rating in the city’s latest annual bridge report card, according to a report by the New York Times. Despite this rating, the bridge was still deemed safe by city officials. Another crucial piece of Brooklyn’s infrastructure, the Gowanus Expressway, was not included in the report, but is in serious disrepair.
To those carefully observing the state of the Gowanus Expressway, which runs along Third Avenue in Bay Ridge, it is increasingly clear that the 45-year-old structure was not intended to sustain today’s heavy traffic load.
“[The structure] is totally inadequate to handle the weight and volume of traffic that it’s getting now,” said Buddy Scotto, who co-founded the Gowanus Expressway Community Coalition. Scotto added that every time an 18-wheeler hits the airbrakes, it takes off half the concrete.
The Gowanus Expressway, which opened in 1941 and widened to six lanes in the 1960s, stretches from the Verrazano Narrows Bridge to the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel/ Brooklyn Queens Expressway interchange. The elevated structure, also known as Interstate-278, is the only interstate highway in Brooklyn.
According to the New York State Department of Transportation, its concrete riding surface is crumbling, and the network of the expressway’s supporting steel beams is also deteriorating. Additionally, undrained dirt and salt-laden water flood and corrode the highway.
The Gowanus is currently being re-decked as it undergoes “continual emergency repairs,” according to the state Department of Transportation. It will be in a state of repair until 2012, said Harold Fink, the DOT’s Gowanus Expressway project manager. At a recent Community Board 7 meeting, Fink acknowledged the Gowanus’ “rapid rate” of deterioration.
The Gowanus receives Manhattan-bound traffic coming from Nassau and Suffolk counties in Long Island and the southern part of Brooklyn for access to the free Brooklyn and Manhattan bridges. In addition to that, the expressway receives traffic from Staten Island and also from the New Jersey Turnpike.
“The design is just limited,” Scotto said. Scotto, like many others, maintains that traffic — especially truck traffic — is heavily contributing to the Gowanus’ rapid deterioration. “It’s getting worse everyday. Someone has to do something about this.”
In late 1980s, a federal highway bill was passed that included a provision that eliminated the Verrazano Bridge’s inbound toll while doubling the price of the outbound toll.
JoAnne Simon, former chair of the Gowanus Community Stakeholders Group and current state committeewoman from the 52nd Assembly District is concerned about the volume of trucks that ride the Gowanus after a free pass on the Verrazano. “One-way toll on the Verrazano encourages extra traffic,” she said, emphasizing that trucks ride it “to save about $40 a day.”
A two-way toll would “reduce concentration on the Gowanus,” Ben Meskin, who found the Gowanus Coalition with Scotto, said. “There will always be bad traffic, but you have to spread it out,” he added.
Meskin and Scotto founded the Gowanus Expressway Community Coalition in 1992, an organization of roughly 20 community groups who investigate the Gowanus traffic problem. A multi-plaintiff lawsuit was filed in 1997 by members of the coalition alleging that a major investment study needed to be done on the Gowanus Corridor, which extends from the Verrazano to the Fulton Ferry. After they won, a new mechanism of participation with the state was formed with the establishment the Gowanus Community Stakeholders Group.
“What was a very contentious process is [now] much more collaborative,” Simon said.
In response to community concerns, an Environmental Impact Statement process, which compares the alternatives and presents their costs, is currently underway. Fink said that a draft of the statement will be ready in 2009.
The Gowanus Project proposes four options for the expressway, including the complete rehabilitation of the tunnel, which may or may not include a “relief viaduct,” and a tunnel, which would replace the overhead expressway.
The tunnel would take about 10 years and over $15 billion to construct, Fink said. Fink compared that figure to the $2 billion it would cost to rehabilitate the structure.
Although the costs significantly differ, Simon argues that the tunnel is a long-term investment. “The life of an overhead is roughly 50 years; the life of a tunnel is at least 200,” she said, adding, “A tunnel is much cheaper to maintain.”
Fink refutes that. If properly rehabilitated, Fink said that the expressway could last well into the future.
Scotto, another strong proponent of the tunnel alternative, said, “The Gowanus tunnel is crucial, not only to replace a crumbling highway with a safe and modern tunnel, but to make neighborhoods safe and healthy from traffic that would detour onto local streets.”
Fink and Simon agreed on one thing — that the situation at hand is involved.
“This is a very complicated project,” Simon said. “I think we’re on the right track. It has a lot of implications, and it’s important that it be done the right way.”
© Brooklyn Daily Eagle 2007
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