State to mow down homes in the

Classic brownstones and other homes in Brooklyn Heights may be demolished by the state as part of the long-overdue effort to modernize the aging Brooklyn-Queens Expressway, state officials revealed this week, according to the Brooklyn Paper. State transportation planners are currently considering several ways to implement a $300 million reconstruction project of the triple cantilever portion of the BQE under the Brooklyn Heights Promenade, plus other portions between Sands Street and Atlantic Avenue. One scenario also calls for homes to be taken near Willow and Middagh streets to accommodate the wider highway. Peter King, project manager with the Department of Transportation, called the possibility of an eminent domain taking unlikely, but confirmed that it is being considered. The project is the first major rehabilitation of the roadway since its opening in 1954, and will seek to modernize the structure by raising truck clearances, widening lanes, and reinforcing
the corroding steel and concrete span. A final plan isn’t due until 2015, and work won’t begin until 2020. [Brooklyn Paper]