Endless construction on the Van Wyck may soon come to an end
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Officials from the city and state say that construction on the Van Wyck Expressway will finally be over this September. Wikimedia Commons photo by Famartin
By Ryan Schwach
In 1991, Julia Louis-Dreyfus’ Seinfeld character Elaine Benes recounted a harrowing experience on the dreaded Van Wyck Expressway in Queens.
“They say no one's ever beaten the Van Wyck,” she said, with tousled hair and bulging, fearful eyes. “But gentlemen, I tell you this, I came as close as anyone ever has.”
Thirty-five years later, drivers are still battling the Van Wyck, hoping to conquer its consistent and seemingly never-ending construction, repairs and airport-bound traffic.
But city and state officials say that battle may finally soon be over.
Heavy construction currently underway on the Van Wyck Expressway is expected to be completed by September, bringing new life to one of New York City’s most notorious highways, according to state officials and Queens Borough President Donovan Richards.
“This has been a pain for a lifetime, and it's about time we put this to bed,” Richards told the Eagle. “We all are tired of the Van Wyck being worked on and the delays and the congestion that impacts the local community.”
Named after the city’s first post-consolidation mayor, Robert Van Wyck, the Van Wyck was built in 1965. It has been a scourge on the mental health of drivers and commuters predominantly in Southeast Queens essentially since its creation.
“I just turned 43, and this thing has been worked on for over 50 years at least,” Richards said.
The roadway has been under some kind of construction since at least the 1980s. Making matters more complicated was the construction of the John F. Kennedy International Airport AirTrain, which runs above a large portion of the Van Wyck.
Since 2017, the state has started several construction projects along the Van Wyck south of Jamaica Avenue to replace outdated infrastructure and make the road more usable. Among the projects was one that changed accesses at Atlantic and Liberty Avenues, and a $13 million effort to replace the Jewel Avenue overpass.
The work set to be completed in September is expected to improve road safety along the Van Wyck around its approach to the airport, as well as mitigate flooding issues.
The crown jewel of the soon-to-be completed work is a lane solely dedicated to airport traffic, giving airport commuters a potential straight shot to JFK while hopefully mitigating traffic for everyone else.
Richards, and the state Department of Transportation, which is managing the construction, are expecting the work to wrap up by September.
“It's been a long haul, and we understand that, and I think we're getting to the finish line,” said Daileyne Abraham, the DOT’s director of construction, during a public meeting in March.
“We anticipate there will be reduced travel time, because you have this dedicated lane,” Abraham added. “You don't have to mix with the other traveling public, but you're going to have three dedicated lanes on the right for people going in and out of the Van Wyck, and then you have this lane that you enter that you cannot exit until you get to the airport.”
The Van Wyck Expressway in Queens has long been a headache for local commuters. But officials say at least some of those headaches may be over soon. Eagle photo by Ryan Schwach
The thought of “reduced travel time” on the Van Wyck will certainly be music to the ears of a generation of Queens commuters, who have tussled with the highway since well before Seinfeld went into syndication.
Although those accustomed to being burned by the Van Wyck will wait until the ribbon is cut before popping any champagne.
Longtime Queens Community Board 10 Chair Betty Bratton is excited, but as someone who has come to be familiar with avoiding the Van Wyck rather than battling it, she’ll celebrate when the work is actually completed.
“Everybody should be happy that some of the work is coming to a conclusion,” Bratton said. “The number of years that it's been going on, it is coming to a conclusion, but there is still work that will be done.”
“We’ll see how people respond to it and how it works out,” she added.
James Johnson, a lifelong Southeast Queens resident who is the executive director of the GatewayJFK Business Improvement District, has known Van Wyck-related issues his entire life.
“If you live in Southeast Queens, you know the Van Wyck has never been reliable,” he said. “I’ve never seen the Van Wyck ever done before.”
He balanced optimism with skepticism.
“When I see it, I'll believe it,” he said.
But, Johnson said that an improved and construction-free Van Wyck would make life significantly better for people and businesses in Southeast Queens.
“It makes it easier for cargo delivery to be on time,” he said. “It makes it easier for you to not have enough travel time to get to your kids, to pick them up from school, from daycare. If you want to have a date with your wife or your husband, you are able to travel faster.”
No Queens institution could be more impacted by a clearer Van Wyck Expressway than Jamaica Hospital, which lists an address on the highway and sits above the most congested part of the roadway.
“The fact that the construction is going to be wrapping up will certainly ease that congestion,” said Michael Hinck, a spokesperson for the hospital. “We appreciate the cooperation, the communication with the DOT and that we worked together to ensure that patients arriving at the hospital via EMS was not an issue.”
The hospital is nearing completion on a new emergency department, which the hospital expects will bring more patients.
Richards has long mined comedic material from the Van Wyck’s woes.
“I always say Queens is the most diverse county because we all just got stuck in the Van Wyck, and we stayed in Queens,” he joked to the Eagle.
While the second-term BP can’t run for his current office again, he staked his political future on the state meeting the September deadline.
If a Van Wyck ribbon cutting doesn’t come by the fall, Richards said, “don’t vote for me.”
But if the deadline is met, he said he was “going to throw a big party.”
