Marc Wouters, a Brooklyn based Architect and Urban Planner has developed an innovative, streamlined design to replace the crumbling Triple Cantilever section of the Brooklyn Queens Expressway (BQE). Mr. Wouters design is cheaper, faster, preserves The Promenade and Brooklyn Bridge Park.
Other proposals from the Department of Transportation required the teardown of the entire cantilever structure, including the Brooklyn Heights Promenade and construction of a temporary parallel bypass highway which would also need to be torn down.
Mr. Wouters design allows two lanes of traffic in each direction to move along the highway throughout most of the construction time, avoid diverting onto local streets and not interfere with the Brooklyn Bridge Park's five million yearly visitors.
In discussing his highway design experience, his latest is a teardown of Syracuse I-81, currently under construction. Wouters said “It's a great project that will really improve the city's downtown and establish several opportunities to grow the economy and address social equity.”
Wouters Streamline Plan is a total rethinking of the project and requires no bypass highway at all. Wouters said “The plan is less invasive, costs less and is quicker to build than other options, and leaves the historic Promenade and Brooklyn Bridge Park intact.” “By keeping the Promenade and repurposing the existing structure, the plan requires at least 30% less construction than other plans, and the cost savings are several hundred million dollars.”
Furman Street, alongside Brooklyn Bridge Park would remain a two lane road. The Streamline Plan would keep the existing cantilever structure, but would widen the lower vehicular deck to accept four lanes of traffic, two in each direction. The upper vehicular level would be converted to a wider, landscaped deck for pedestrians and bike use.
Wouters says “The removal of vehicular weight from the existing cantilever should eliminate most of the destructive vibrations currently undermining the structure, especially where the deck connects to the retaining wall. This allows the heavy weight and vibrations from traffic to be removed from approximately 65% of the existing retaining wall and cantilever.”
Wouters reviewed the plan with two independent transportation and civil firms and a non-profit with transportation experts. They all think the plan works, has no fatal flows, is efficient, solves critical traffic management during construction.”
According to Rachel Weinberger, the Peter N Herman chair for Transportation at the Regional Plan Association “I think it's an elegant plan and provides the amount of mobility that's required for that corridor, with a caveat that the plan needs to be fully vetted and fleshed out from engineering perspective.” “This is a very promising approach.”
According to Lara Birnback, executive director of the Brooklyn Heights Association “The BHA has seen Marc's plan, it's a significant improvement over anything that has so far come out of New York City Department of Transportation and we support its inclusion for serious consideration and investigation as part of the federal environmental review process.”
Birnback added “In addition, we are interested in learning more about his vision for the areas immediately to the south and north of the cantilever itself.”
Go Marc Wouters!!!
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