$11 Billion: Estimated Cost of Replacing the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway With a Tunnel

A plan to teardown the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway and build a tunnel in its place has new political support and an expensive engineering plan.

1 minute read

February 27, 2020, 7:00 AM PST

By James Brasuell @CasualBrasuell


Brooklyn-Queens Expressway

MusikAnimal / Wikimedia Commons

Emma G. Fitzsimmons and Winnie Hu report that an ambitious idea to tear down the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway (BQE), "a dilapidated Robert Moses-era eyesore of a highway running along the scenic Brooklyn waterfront," is gaining political momentum.

City Council Speaker Corey Johnson, who is running for mayor next year, supported the idea of tearing down the BQE and replacing it this week. The City Council commissioned an engineering study of the idea, released on Monday, which placed an $11 billion estimated price tag on the project. Arup completed the engineering study.

"New York is turning for guidance to other cities that have found innovative solutions to transform aging roads into something less obtrusive," write Fitzsimmons and Hu. "Seattle replaced the Alaskan Way Viaduct with a tunnel as part of a $3 billion overhaul. San Francisco is replacing a highway near the Golden Gate Bridge with a landscaped parkway." The article also includes a history of planning relative to what to do about the crumbling BQE. Planetizen has also been following the evolution of the replacement plan over the years:

Monday, February 24, 2020 in The New York Times

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