Board Looks at Pros, Cons of 5-Year
Gowanus Expy Improvement Project
By Harold Egeln
Brooklyn Daily Eagle
BAY RIDGE — The perennial traffic problems at the Sixth Avenue exit ramp off the Gowanus Expressway, at vehicle-packed 65th Street, may be on the road to a solution with a proposed $240 million, five-year project. But concerns over its effectiveness and the general shaky state of the 68-year-old expressway were voiced at a recent Community Board 10 meeting here.
“This will not kill the problem,” said board member Alan Bortnick, a driver, about what he called “one of the worst intersections in Brooklyn.”
Joining him was board member Bob Cassara, also a driver, who said, “This is not going to work. They’re spending $10 million to double the ramp lane. They should put energy into building a tunnel to replace the expressway.”
Long concerned about traffic issues in general, Cassara said that the state has “spent half a billion dollars under the guise of emergency contract work,” on and below the aging structure, with almost-daily repair work at various sections adding to traffic problems. “It looks like we’ll be stuck with this for another 20 years,” lamented Cassara.
Board 10 Chair Dean Rasinya reined the focus back to the topic at hand — a ramp project report, read by Doris Cruz of the traffic and transportation committee.
“We’ve asked for a re-design of the Sixth Avenue ramp for decades,” Cruz said. “This project will start in 2010 and continue for approximately five years.”
The affected areas would be between the ramp at 65th Street and Sixth Avenue and 53rd Street and Third Avenue in Sunset Park (Community Board 7’s area).
Wider Ramp, New ‘Fly-over’ Lane
“The ramp will be doubled in width,” said Cruz, “to reduce congestion on the highway from exiting traffic. The majority of the exiting traffic turns left onto Sixth Avenue and then makes an abrupt right turn from Sixth Avenue onto 65th Street to travel toward Bensonhurst. The widened ramp will have a left turn lane, a right turn lane and a shared lane.”
Dedicated turn signals will be installed at the ramp exit, and a left turn signal will be timed to prevent a blocked intersection.
On the expressway itself a “fly-over lane” will be created at the median separating Manhattan-bound traffic from Shore Parkway and the Verrazano Bridge, a big alternation on the expressway causing a two-month closing of the Third Avenue ramp at 65th Street. Manhattan-bound express buses would likely be diverted onto Third Avenue for that time period, Cruz said.
“It will be converted into a reversible extra wide HOV/bus lane around the area of the Third Avenue-65th Street entrance ramp, necessitating a reconfiguration of the lanes but will eliminate the weaving of inbound (Manhattan) bus/HOC traffic with Shore Parkway traffic. It will alternate inbound and outboard directions during peak hours,” explained Cruz.
The triangular grassy patch between Third Avenue and 64th Street, across from the ball field, will be landscaped and beautified with ornamental plants in granite planters, benches and a walkway with wheelchair access.
“The benefits will be a reduction in vehicle backups at the Sixth Avenue ramp, with less delay on Sixth Avenue and 65th Street due to signal control improvements,” said Cruz. Additionally, the fly-over reversible median, she said, “will improve safety and traffic flow” and, most of all, “will eliminate the need for many smaller emergency repairs that lead to traffic congestion.”
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