Saturday, January 3, 2015

Nassau Expressway is in sad shape

Photo from Newsday
From the Forum:

The Nassau Expressway (Route 878) is a heavily commuted roadway that connects Southwest Nassau to Queens. Every day, approximately 40,000 vehicles travel along the expressway, which results in heavy traffic conditions, especially during rush hour. The roadway also serves as a storm evacuation route for some 400,000 people, designated as the route for the ambulance, fire vehicles, and police cars during emergencies, as well as residents that must evacuate during flooding or other natural disasters.

The expressway is currently in need of major repairs, given its significant number of potholes, exposed gravel, and poor drainage. Large puddles and flooding of the roadway occur with even minor rainfall. Although it was used as an evacuation road during Sandy, it flooded severely during the storm.

Repair projects along the expressway have been delayed for decades; most recently, in 2012, New York State delayed the project because engineers had concerns over soil and nearby tidal wetlands. As of now, design work is not expected to begin until at least 2023 and completed in 2025.

Senator Charles Schumer and State Assemblyman Phillip Goldfeder this week called on the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to jumpstart a storm-surge protection and repair plan for expressway...

10 comments:

JQ said...

well it's about damn time.

I used to ride around there a lot and it resembled a canal even weeks after a storm.

schumer better make this happen,since he supposedly has more pull now that harry reid is dying.

Anonymous said...

What expressway has a light every 200 feet. I take this thing everyday and want to shoot myself.

Anonymous said...

All of our transportation infrastructure is in horrendous shape. The city really needs to make infrastructure improvements a priority.

Its ridiculous that you drive down many streets and highways that are riddled with potholes, haven't been repaved for decades, multiple street lights out for years, faded line markings and signs and garbage and trash all over. Nyc is the only place in the country you see this and its sad.

Anonymous said...

Some cities spend their money on arterials instead of wasting it on side streets like NYC does.

JQ said...

the only way this gets fixed if it becomes a pedestrian plaza.

another way is if a bogus non-profit gets assembled.something with "friends of the" in the title.

but this is southern queens,the leper colony of the borough,a lonely planet ignored,and we can't have nice things.


Anonymous said...

The roads and highways around Queens are horrendous. Many streets or highways do not allow you to drive at the speed limit because they are so riddled with potholes or have such rough pavement. The road out the back exit of the Avery Avenue Home Depot to College Pt. Blvd. can barely be called a road, but just a collection of broken pavement. The exit ramp off the Van Wyck at Jewel Avenue is also impassable at any speed, it's so broken up. College Point Blvd., in the area of Chinatown, is very heavily damaged. The Horace Harding service road is also full of deep pot holes. I have to wonder where on earth our tax dollars for such repairs have been used instead. Probably to finance something for illegal aliens.

Anonymous said...

It's all part of vision zero. If you can't drive at the speed limit, pedestrian fatalities should be even lower.

Anonymous said...

Whose idea was it to put an airport logistics warehouse in the middle of nowhere and to install a traffic light for it on a highway? On Rockaway Boulevard that light is everyone's top peeve.

Anonymous said...

The logistics warehouse in idlewild park? It's not in the middle of nowhere, it's right next to the airport!

Anonymous said...

but we can spend $500k on replacing just-fine street lights on some side streets in Glendale (because someone knows someone, im sure), but key streets can fall apart like crackers.