By Michael Morton
“It's very intense,” said Manager Elena Madison of the Project for Public Spaces in Manhattan, describing the current situation during a board meeting April 20. Her non-profit organization was hired by the Greater Jamaica Development Corp., a business group that promotes economic growth in the area, to study redeveloping the intersection, the key component in a series of area transit projects totaling $50 million.”We want to increase the access into Jamaica,” said Engineer Neil Porto of Daniel Frankfurt, a Manhattan firm also hired by Greater Jamaica to draft a solution.The intersection initiative will address a slew of problems in a heavily used area that includes the AirTrain light rail link with Kennedy Airport, several bus stops, a couple of subway entrances, unofficial dollar van pickups and a Long Island Rail Road station, Porto and Madison said. The congestion and tight confines of both the roadway and the sidewalks leave vehicles jammed in the intersection and pedestrians forced to walk between or around them. Not surprisingly, the Sutphin and Archer crossing has the most pedestrian accidents in Queens, Porto said. With new buses being added through a city takeover of private lines and plans for longer, higher-volume articulated vehicles on some routes, Porto said community leaders had to act.”We think it's going to be a crisis, really,” he said.While the project has not been finalized yet, initial plans call for widening both the streets and sidewalks at the intersection, enlarging bus stops, installing trees and other greenery, and moving subway entrances away from the congestion and into as-yet created plazas on the north side of Archer Avenue. The plazas would require that commercial buildings currently at the site be razed, but Porto said landlords and business owners would be fully assisted and compensated according to federal guidelines. New commercial spaces would be created in the plazas.Other aspects of the overall $50 million project, funded by the city and federal governments, include redeveloping the underpass area across from the AirTrain just south of the intersection and an “Airport Village Square” on the west side of Sutphin Boulevard between 94th Avenue and 95th Avenue.The final component would be extending Atlantic Avenue so it flows down into 95th Avenue rather than ending at 94th Avenue. Porto assured the community that the route had been altered so that no houses would be torn down, a promise echoed by board leaders.”No private homes will be affected by eminent domain,” CB 12 Chairwoman Gloria Black said. Work on the projects is expected to kick off in July and finish in 2009.Reach reporter Michael Morton by e-mail at news@timesledger.com or by phone at 718-229-0300, Ext. 154.
