Thursday, June 18, 2009

Kew Gardens Interchange slated for $400M,10-year upgrade

From NY1:

A state project is slated to tackle the traffic problems created by several major highways that meet in Kew Gardens Hills.

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

More money for cars.... less for people. Gee, thanks.

Anonymous said...

People use cars. And services are delivered to people via roads, in case you haven't noticed. Police, fire and sanitation services, among others need roads to respond to your needs.

What I'm saying is said...

something needs to be done there.
Theres no connections between the van wyck and the jackie robinson in some directions. the Grand central gets backed up to forest hills high school because of the bottle neck. Theres flooding all the time.
just a mess

Anonymous said...

Would also be nice to connect the VW to the GCP. As it is, they pretty much pretend they dont pass right over/under each other.

Secondly, it would be nice if a bit furhere up, the westbound LIE could connect to the VW without having to hit the service roads, or Southbound VW to get to LIE as well.

Anonymous said...

And what's with the LIE connecting to the southbound BQE but not the northbound?

Sid? said...

Something needs to be done there. That section road is a complete mess, as noted by the previous poster. I wondered what on earth took government so long to figure it out.

Anonymous said...

And what's with the LIE connecting to the southbound BQE but not the northbound?

If you want northbound BQE, chances are you're heading to GCP anyway.

Sergey Kadinsky said...

Often, the city-bound Q46 gets stuck in the traffic as it enters this complex interchange. I hope that the city can give the buses their own priority lane between Vleigh Place and Queens Blvd. during rush hours.

As for the flooding, this interchange marks the source of the Flushing River, so I hope the city takes this into consideration.

The reason there is so much traffic on city highways is because the exits are too closely spaced, less than a mile from each other. Look at the NJ turnpike, where exits are spaced farther apart. That's what keeps it moving.

RC said...

Long overdue.

Yes, it will be a temporary traffic nightmare, and will probaby cost entirely too much.

BUT, much of the interchange still employs 1920's pre-Interstate technology and the the GCP there runs BENEATH the water table (hence the constant flooding/slick spots.) The design contributes to an inordinately high traffic accident rate.

There's a reason why some of the local firemen call the interchange "Death Valley."

Anonymous said...

You're all missing the points...

Ten years??? Someone explain why it has to take that long. Think of traffic being tied up for ten years.

$400 million? Why does it have to cost so much - and does anyone doubt it won't be more - a lot more?

Anonymous said...

There's gonna be a lot of problems re-building.the water table is very high in some spots.If it is said to take 10 years,add another 3-4.

Anonymous said...

Leave it alone....It is fine the way it is!

I am sure there are more important issues the money should be spent on. Who thinks of these stupid projects?

Anonymous said...

This was also planned back in the 70's, 80's and 90's. Remember the plan to build the 2nd Av Subway took 70 years to get off the ground.
The KG Interchange will never be fixed. You can quote me on this. Give me a call in 45 years.