Residents of Glendale and Middle Village are in for some major traffic detours next week as the 71st Avenue Bridge and the stretch of Cooper Avenue directly below it will see full and partial closures beginning next week.
The city’s Department of Transportation’s (DOT) is scheduled to begin rehabilitation work on the bridge above the Cooper Avenue underpass on the Glendale/Middle Village border on Monday, July 11. The project includes concrete and lighting repairs, as well as curb and sidewalk replacement along the 71st Avenue Bridge.
During work hours, there will be alternating closures on 71st Avenue above and on Cooper Avenue below.
“Above Cooper Avenue at 71st Avenue, there’s a Long Island Rail Road bridge for the Montauk line for the freight and there is a vehicular bridge for the cars that want to go eastbound on Cooper Avenue,” said Gary Giordano, district manager of Community Board 5 (CB 5). “The condition [of the vehicular bridge] from the standpoint of aesthetics seems better than the condition of the railroad bridge. We have a budget request in for the painting of the railroad bridge. I don’t see that there is an extensive amount of work when it comes to this bridge.”
According to Giordano, the project is estimated to last three months, and the bulk of the work will be replacing the deteriorating concrete of the retaining walls underneath the bridges along Cooper Avenue.
For the 71st Avenue Bridge, intermittent full bridge closures will be in effect during work hours, Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. The bridge will reopen at the end of each work day.
Cooper Avenue will see alternating eastbound and westbound lane closures during work hours, Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., with the roadway reopening at the end of the work day.
There will be traffic agents assigned to the locations to help move traffic along, the DOT said.
The DOT has created a detour map outlining where drivers have to go to avoid the construction.
To get around the 71st Avenue Bridge while it is closed, the DOT suggests drivers take 75th Street northbound to 69th Road, make a right onto 79th Street, then another right onto 68th Road and a final right onto 80th Street.
Traveling eastbound along Cooper Avenue, drivers will have to take 76th Street southbound to Myrtle Avenue where they can get to 80th Street and travel northbound back up to Cooper Avenue. Westbound travelers will have to take 80th Street southbound to Myrtle Avenue, and make a right onto 73rd Place and take that back to Cooper Avenue.
