DOT, City Hall give conflicting tales about delayed Queensboro Bridge pedestrian lane
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City officials are giving conflicting stories as to why the Queensboro Bridge pedestrian-only lane has not been completed. Eagle file photo by Ryan Schwach
By Ryan Schwach
Conflicting stories told by the Department of Transportation and the mayor’s office have left a long-delayed plan to open separate bike and pedestrian paths along the dangerous Queensboro Bridge in limbo.
Though it seemed the opening of the new pedestrian-only lane on the Queensboro Bridge was imminent last week, city officials now say they are unsure when the Queens-Manhattan connector will be open. City officials also appear unsure as to why there’s a delay.
Last Friday, the DOT announced the postponement of what was originally planned to be a long-awaited celebration for the completion of the work on the bridge. The mayor’s office claimed the postponement was called for because the mayor and his new deputy mayor for operations, Jeffrey Roth, had not been properly briefed on the long-planned project.
However, during a hearing before the City Council last week, DOT officials claimed that the project was never ready to be opened in the first place and that some additional construction still needs to be completed. They also told lawmakers that they were without a "precise timeline” as to when the new lane can open.
The new South Outer Roadway – which would be open to pedestrians, leaving the opposite North Outer Roadway open exclusively to cyclists – has been planned for close to four years, and has faced numerous delays.
The lane was supposed to open at the end of last summer before being delayed until the first quarter of 2025.
If the South Outer Roadway is not complete by the end of this month, it will be the sixth time the project faced a delay.
The shared cyclist and pedestrian pathway on the bridge is chaotic and dangerous. There have been more than two dozen injuries on the path since 2021.
Following the postponement of the opening last Friday, transportation outlet StreetsBlog reported that the mayor had not been given a briefing on the project, which was started under Adams’ predecessor, Mayor Bill de Blasio.
City Hall repeated a similar claim to the Eagle in a comment on Friday.
“As we previously stated, nothing has been delayed, and the mayor and City Hall must be provided a full briefing on how the agency plans to roll this out smoothly and ensure New Yorkers can continue to get to where they need to go efficiently,” City Hall spokesperson Kayla Mamelak said. “The mayor has not been briefed, the new deputy mayor of operations has not been briefed, and City Hall has yet to receive the traffic data we have requested that would show how traffic across two boroughs would be affected by this change.”
City Hall said that the mayor needs to be able to understand the potential impacts of the project, which is normal procedure for a large-scale project.
They additionally gave no timeline for when he is expected to receive that information or why he had yet to receive it.
Testifying before the Council Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure last week, DOT Commissioner Ydanis Rodriguez and First Deputy Commissioner Margaret Forgione made no reference to the mayor, and instead blamed the change of schedule on construction.
“In anticipation of today's hearing, we were trying to get the South Outer Roadway opened and in use for pedestrians, we got a little bit ahead of ourselves, and we have a little bit more work to complete on some fencing gates and a little bit of pavement work,” Forgione said. “So we do anticipate that happening pretty quickly.”
The officials were pressed for a timeline, and for the details of the additional work by Councilmember Julie Won and Committee Chair Councilmember Selvena Brooks-Powers.
“It was supposed to be done,” Won said at the hearing. “We're supposed to open it by the end of the first quarter. We're nearing the end of the first quarter.”
DOT did not have clear answers, and at one point Rodriguez – who used to chair that very same committee when he was in the Council – stated broadly the work would be done “this year,” before correcting himself, saying it would be completed “very soon.”
City Councilmember Julie Won grilled Department of Transportation officials on the reasoning for the delays on construction of a pedestrian-only lane on the Queensboro Bridge. File photo by Gerardo Romo/NYC Council Media Unit
“What are we waiting for? Are we talking about quarters? Because we were promised two years ago that this would open, and we've been delayed more than two years again,” said Won.
Communications officials at DOT referred all questions to City Hall, and did not respond to follow up questions about the discrepancies in the agency’s and the mayor’s versions of events.
Brooks-Powers said that the responses from DOT were “not sufficient.”
“This is not something that just came up,” she said. “I'm sure you knew that with the councilmember being a member of this committee, it was going to come up today. It has been coming up for three years.”
Brooks-Powers requested more information from the agency, saying that the “can has been kicked down the road.”
Won, whose district includes the Queens side of the bridge, is frustrated with the runaround from the city and the lack of transparency.
Prior to the testimony last week, DOT verbally told her office that the bridge was ready to open, but then changed their tune during the hearing, according to the councilmember.
“Without a clear explanation of why City Hall delayed the South Outer Roadway opening after DOT said it was safe to open, it appears that they are playing politics with people's lives,” said Won. “For three years, we marched across the bridge with advocates and pushed DOT to give us clear timelines at hearings and in letters. Each delay threatens the safety of 10,000 pedestrians and bike riders who use the Queensboro Bridge daily.”
