Attention motorists: Expect traffic headaches if you’re going to be driving on 86th Street in Bay Ridge any time soon.
The 86th Street entrance to the Gowanus Expressway will be closed for approximately three weeks to accommodate a major repair project on a bridge that is located over the highway, according to Community Board 10 officials, who announced the impending closure in their monthly newsletter.
The repair project, spearheaded by the New York State Department of Transportation (DOT), began Feb 6. The first phase of the work has been completed.
But mid-July will mark the start of a crucial new phase in the project, Board 10 officials said.
The MTA’s X28 and X 28 express buses, which normally use the 86th Street entrance to get onto the expressway to take riders from Brooklyn to Manhattan, will have to be re-routed.
“Manhattan bound X28 and X38 buses will head west on 86th Street, south on Seventh Avenue toward 92nd Street, then proceed west on 92nd Street toward Dahlgren Place, then proceed north on Dahlgren Place to access the HOV lane,” the Board 10 newsletter reads.
Known as the 86th Street Bridge, the overpass is located over the Gowanus Expressway on 86th Street between Dahlgren Place and Gatling Place. The bridge serves both pedestrian and vehicular traffic. The expressway entrance is at Dahlgren Place. There is a highway exit on Gatling Place. The exit will also be shut down during this phase of the repair work.
The project includes repairs to the bridge’s deck and railing as well as the replacement of a pedestrian fence.
The work is being done by State DOT because the Gowanus Expressway is part of a state highway, Interstate 278.
The Gowanus Expressway also serves as the southern portion of the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway and connects to the Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel, Prospect Expressway, Belt Parkway and the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge.
The new phase of the repair project could impact traffic on 86th Street, one of the busiest roadways in Southwest Brooklyn, Bay Ridge officials said.
Parking is restricted on the bridge while the work is being done.
“The 86th St. bridge has parking lanes and will lose those parking spaces intermittently throughout the job, impacting the surrounding commercial spaces; most notably, the PC Richard & Sons adjacent to the 86th Street bridge,” Community Board 10 District Manager Josephine Beckmann wrote in an email to local officials at the start of the project in February.
PC Richard & Sons has a store near the bridge at 576-580 86th St.
DOT put measures in place to mitigate the repair project’s impact on Bay Ridge, Beckmann said.
“Additional steps, such as using pre-cast concrete to replace the bridge decks, substantially lowers the overall construction time. The construction methods employed by the department should lead to a timely completion of this vitally important work,” Beckmann said.
The entire project is expected to be completed some time in August.
