Queens’ Transportation Program To Start The Millennium 21 Major Highway Construction Projects Slated For Queens

by VICTOR ROSS A massive $180 million construction program will upgrade 21 major Queens highway, roadway and commercial centers during the next five years, it was announced by the New York City Transportation Coordinating Council (NYCTCC). Costing from $110,000 to $69.5 million, the multi-faceted projects will cover all aspects of urban travel, ranging from upgrading five of the borough’s major commuter highways, rebuilding rusty expressway overpasses, erecting sound barriers, channelizing key commercial streets, and even constructing waterfront greenways in the western and northern ends of the borough. The projects are an important key to Queens’ economic resurgence, traffic safety, and quality of life, since more than one-third of New York City’s 5,587.6 miles of city streets are in this borough, and nearly a million vehicles drive on its parkways and expressways very day. The projects will cover most sections of Queens, from Flushing to Jamaica, and between Long Island City and Bayside. The work schedules will not only reflect the increasing rush-hour demands of the heavy concentration of motorists, but of pedestrians who frequent Queens’ rapidly expanding commercial districts in Flushing and Jamaica. With the NYCTCC serving as a central conduit for city and state transportation funding, over $6.5 million will be spent to launch ten of these projects during the last three months of this year, and eight more projects will be launched during the first year of the millennium at a cost of another $6 million. As the projects get under way, heavier expenditures will begin during the second and third years. Fifteen major highway-related projects, covering five key commuter roadways, will be constructed at a cost of $155.4 million. Initials of the lead agency are enclosed after each project. 

More than $73 million will be spent on four projects upgrading the entire length of the Clearview Expwy.: Rehabilitation of the roadways’ 16 bridges, repairing the pavement, Continued from page 3 redesigning its complex intersection with the Grand Central Pkwy., and construction of long-sought sound barriers between 15 Rd. and Roe Pl. (State DOT). Three projects on the Grand Central Pkwy., costing $45.4 million will reconstruct three bridges and build a series of sound barriers between 172 St. and Chevy Chase Rd., as well as between 244 St. and Douglaston Pkwy. (State DOT). 
Nearly $13 million has been allocated for two projects to improve the accesses of the increasingly busy Whitestone Expwy. from the Van Wyck Expwy., as well as from the Grand Central and Cross Island Pkwys. Key to the exploding vehicular volumes is the rapid and development of the nearby giant College Point Corporate Park. (State DOT). 
 The Long Island Expressway’s junctions with the Van Wyck Expwy., Cross Island Pkwy., the Brooklyn-Queens Expwy. and its giant westerly viaduct leading to the Queens-Midtown Tunnel, will be rehabilitated at a cost of $11.1. In addition, long-suffering nighttime commuters will cheer the news that $1 million has also been budgeted to conduct a study for the rehabilitation of the Expressway, between the Van Wyck and the Cross Island. (State DOT). Highway crews will make resurfacing repairs costing over $12 million along the Van Wyck Expwy., below the Long Island Expwy. The crews will also repair pedestrian, auto and LIRR bridges spanning the Expressway in the vicinity of Jamaica and Atlantic Aves. (State DOT). In addition, more than $25.3 million has been allocated for a series of projects designed to promote a smoother and safer flow of vehicles and pedestrian at six key Queens transportation and commercial hubs: 
 With the coming construction of the Port Authority’s rehabilitation of Hillside and Jamaica Ave. auxiliary lanes, between 67 and 91 Aves. (City DOT).  Design and development of a greenway for pedestrians and cyclists along the East River, between the Pulaski Bridge and LaGuardia Airport. (City Parks). 
 Rechannelization of the currently-tangled Queens Plaza access to the Queensboro Bridge, where six lanes of traffic from Queens and Northern Blvds., try to squeeze onto the bridge’s three lanes. (City DOT).  major $3.763 million development of pedestrian accesses in the rapidly expanding Jamaica Center, and the development of a greenway link along the Flushing River, which will ultimately link north shore Queens greenways with the Brooklyn-Queens parklands. (City DOT). 
Reconstruction of heavily-traveled Springfield Blvd., between the LIRR main line and Rockaway Blvd. Scheduled to begin in the first year of the millennium, the project will cost $5 million. (City DOT). The New York City Transportation Coordinating Council is the city’s best kept secret. Operating out of its Hunters Point offices, the NYCTCC coordinates the planning and funding programs of the city’s federally-mandated five-year Transportation Improvement Plan. According to the law, this plan requires state and local agencies to develop an intermodal transportation system that is economically efficient and moves people and goods in an energy-efficient manner.’ Funneling city and state projects through this agency during the past 17 years has cut duplication and excess paper work, by speeding local requests for federal funding.