Brooklyn Heights

What lies beneath the Brooklyn Heights Promenade?

Prep slowly beginning for $1.9 billion rehabilitation of the BQE

August 22, 2018 By Mary Frost Brooklyn Daily Eagle
A boring machine sits on steel plates at the north end of the Brooklyn Heights Promenade. The machine will dig out cylindrical bores of material below the surface in preparation for the upcoming $1.9 billion rehabilitation of the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway. Eagle photo by Mary Frost
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What’s going on at the north end of the Brooklyn Heights Promenade?

Contractors with the Department of Transportation’s Division of Bridges are getting ready to conduct soil borings there, in preparation for the upcoming $1.9 billion rehabilitation of the BQE.

A large boring machine currently sits in the north circle, ensconced on steel plates.

With deteriorating, 70-year-old structures, the BQE reconstruction is a massive project for DOT. In July, contractors conducted a ground-penetrating radar survey of the Promenade to find historic structures buried beneath that had been partly demolished during construction of the BQE’s triple cantilever. Now, contractors need borings to get more information.

A boring machine digs out a cylindrical bore of material below the surface. Various tests are conducted on the bore, such as a strength test, an exam for chloride from roadway deicing salts, measurement of volume of permeable voids and more.

The Parks Department has said that no harm will come to the popular Promenade Gardens during the testing.

The BQE’s disintegrating 1.5-mile stretch between Atlantic Avenue and Sands Street includes a series of 21 concrete and steel bridges over local roads, along with the triple cantilever, which stacks two roadways above Furman Street beneath the Brooklyn Heights Promenade.

The triple cantilever was built between 1944 and 1948; the Promenade officially opened to the public by 1951.

The reconstruction will bring the deteriorating roadway up to current safety standards, address the structural conditions, fix flooding, drainage and lighting issues and improve traffic flow.

The environmental process is expected to conclude in 2019, according to DOT.

 

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