Brooklyn, New York Transportation Committee Meetings, 22 Sep 2022

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From YouTube: NYC Department of Transportation Presentation on Interim BQE Traffic Detours

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DATE: Thursday, September 22, 2022
LOCATION: PS 130/MS 839
713 Caton Avenue Gymatorium
6:30 PM
Sponsored by: Assemblymember Robert Carroll, City Council Member Shahana Hanif, City Council Member Rita Joseph, Brooklyn Community Boards 7, 12 and 14.

A

Hey good evening, everyone, hello, I'm assembly, member Robert, Carroll I'm here with my colleague in government council, member shahana hanif, and of course we also have. uh We have Julie and tanvi from uh the D.O.T to present to us uh the dot, BQE detour plan that all of you know greatly affects the neighborhoods of Windsor, Terrace, Kensington and Prospect. Park, South and I.

A

Do want to thank uh dot for coming out here tonight to address all of us so that all of our neighborhoods and all of the community boards who are affected by this project uh can hear this presentation uh directly to know how we can um contribute to making a better plan so that our communities are not so impacted by this necessary work.

A

I will say that this is obviously very necessary work to fix the triple cantilever, but to make sure that Windsor, Terrace, Kensington and Prospect Park South do not burden and undo you do not have an undue burden placed at their doorstep and I know that many of you have contacted myself and the councilwoman about issues around East, 5th, Street and East 5th, Street and Caton Avenue, and the turn there and the amount of traffic already at the East 5th Street exit on Caton Avenue. We have relayed that already to dot.

A

Obviously we want you to feel free to ask any questions tonight that you are concerned about whether they be safety, Health anything else and we're gonna happy to we're happy to try to answer them to make sure that we make the best out of this bad situation uh and I'm so glad that all of you came out tonight and I'm going to turn it over to my colleague, shahana.

B

Thank you so much good evening. Everyone, I'm council, member shahana hanif, so grateful to see so many of our neighbors here tonight for a thoughtful productive conversation about this detour plan.

B

Your questions concerns Curiosities all matter and we've got the the right people here tonight to respond to them I'm grateful also that the dot is here and that they've been collaborating with us to make sure that your concerns are prioritized for minimal impact and ensuring that we are prioritizing environmental justice and all of this I want to thank assembly, member Bobby Carroll for being such a proactive partner and making sure that newcomers like myself, get fully embraced in all of the challenges with the BQE.

B

That was not in my portfolio when I worked at my predecessor's office, uh former councilmember Brad Lander. So thank you so much for getting me up to speed with the work necessary work that we're going to really have to work together on. So thank you all so much for being here and I also want to give a shout out to Jeremy from uh community board 7 and all other partners. Who've been engaged for many many years now. Thank you so much for your continued commitment to this neighborhood and to our city.

A

Yes, we must thank Jeremy and Sean Campbell uh for from community board 14 for live streaming this tonight uh and bringing together so many Community residents, as well as I. Don't see Barry Spitzer, but from community board. 12 also helped put uh tonight's meeting together, but I can hand it over to the dot uh without further ado.

C

D

C

Good evening, everyone- and thank you so much for having us here tonight. Thank you so much to assembly, member Carol and councilmember knife they've really worked in close partnership with us on this project and I really appreciate them relaying so much feedback to us. My name is Julie Barrow I'm, Chief strategy officer at Dot, and perhaps my best credential for tonight is that I grew up on Vanderbilt street, so I'm very familiar with the local area.

C

I currently live in Park Slope, so I hope that we can get really into the details of what your concerns are and speak at a really granular level about how we can address your concerns. Something I really appreciated about both electives in the room tonight is that they've relayed your concerns and we're really open to considering them. We've heard clearly that East 5th Street is a is a real concern that there are other roads. That may be better, so really want to hear from you tonight what your preferences are.

C

Our goal is to keep as few trucks off of residential streets as possible as many trucks off residential streets as possible. We really want to make sure that we keep keeping everyone safe as they're, going to school or to playgrounds or to work so just really eager to hear your thoughts tonight and we'll walk through the various detours. I do want to make a point that, hopefully this is not full on Carmageddon, because we do have it's just three weekend closures.

C

There is some prep work, that's going to go into that which is about two weeks of only evening closures and that's the kind of closures that we do on a very regular basis for minor repairs, so I just want to level set that this is not for a full year. It's just for a few weekends, but understand that that also has an impact on your day-to-day life. In closing. I just want to note um you can ask your questions in person at the mic, but we also have these cards.

C

If you don't feel like speaking or if you want to question and uh submit a question that will answer in follow-up, there are cards on the back of the table back there or our bridges team who's over here can give you some extra copies.

C

um I think that's it I'll hand it over to tanvi who's on our bridges team to introduce herself.

E

Good evening everybody, my name is Stan vipandia I am the program director for the BQE project, our the central project. That has been part of discussion for a pretty long time. Now the Atlantic to Sands portion um I'll walk you through the presentation. I know, you've heard some bits and pieces so I, please listen to the information. I'm, pretty sure a lot of things will clear up as we go through, but we're happy to stay around as long as necessary. To answer the questions, some questions we may not have answers directly right now.

E

Unfortunately, we wanted to have our freight person here today, but she had a family emergency. So if there's something very detailed about Freight I may not have the answer and we'll get back to you on that, but other than that. We'll do our best to provide the information we have.

E

um So while we have been talking about the longer term plan for BQE Atlantic to Sands, we had mentioned previously in previous presentations going back to 2016-17 that we had done a lot of analysis. Already we had identified areas that would need some work in the shorter run. We were, you know, waiting to see which way things go, and then we could determine if we need to move forward or not, obviously that longer term plan isn't imminent. Yet so we need to address these uh particular locations in the nearer time frame.

E

So I'll walk you through what the work is and why we need to take traffic off in order to do the work and then exactly what that effort to make sure um traffic is safely maneuvering and the neighborhoods also can continue functioning so we'll walk through all that.

F

C

I just wanted to make sure that I I mentioned that there is a real shift with this Administration in the plans for the BQE previous administrations, we're looking to preserve the Central Court, or that very unique cantilever structure is for 20 years for a very drawn out process to think about what to do with that section, the Adams Administration has decided to move forward expeditiously and a long-term fix for the central section, which is why some of this work is necessary.

C

um So we're going to be we've just launched two parallel visioning processes that I hope you'll all participate in both for the central BQE, but also we're now looking at the northern and southern corridors in Brooklyn to make sure we're having a really holistic understanding of how to achieve equity and reconnect communities throughout the whole quarter along the Robert Moses structure that we know as divided communities for so long. So just wanted to add that note and happy to answer those questions. Offline.

E

All right so, as we've talked about this cantilever section is where we're talking about because of the uniqueness of this structure. um You know, there's like it's a three-tiered cake. If you cut it, you have a roadway hanging out. That's the cantilever, that's what you call a cantilever when you're only supported at one end. So when we do work on this, that's where it's a very unique structure. Typically we're able to do things in sections on this one we can't which I'll get into in a moment.

E

But that's the area we're talking about um the longer term plan has been in discussions, but that hasn't stopped us from doing things. Obviously, safety being number one, not only have we done the analysis and stayed on top of the structure. We have the we've. We've done a few things that are a little bit Cutting Edge. Of course, the in-person inspections by dot Engineers are ongoing. We go out there on a quarterly basis. The state also does a binyl inspection, so every two years someone's out there. So that's ongoing. That provides us data.

E

The other thing we have done is we've installed monitors in some key locations and these monitors are obviously you know, they're going to give us information or within a band right. So we know that when things are all good, they should be in a certain band when they start going out of that band, we get an alert and then we investigate- and you know most of the time it turns out- somebody bumped the sensor or the battery died right. It's not the kind of thing where oh my God, the world is coming down. It's it's.

E

Something is off. Let's investigate, let's find out, what's really hap happening right and then the other thing we've done. Is this automated truck enforcement of the overweight trucks right? This is a Cutting Edge thing. This is the first time in the nation that we're able to do this. We got a legislation through and signed last year, so now we're in the process of installing sensors, along with similar to our speed camera system, where the violators are identified by a camera, we can look them up and then issue violations. So all of these technologies have existed.

E

They've not existed in this combined format, so we're in the process of getting started on the installation working on some of the back office to make sure that the violation actually can be issued and so early 2023 is when violations will start going out. So this is a big important uh piece for us to keep the structure safe, because the overweight trucks obviously are going to speed up the deterioration of the structure. So we've taken steps towards that. But all of these are data points right.

E

We get the information about what kind of trucks we have since 2019. We have had sensors that tell us what kind of truck weights we have. So we take that the other sensors that we have there, plus all of the inspections we're doing, and then we run models. We have 3D models. We have finite element models that tell us what's going on that, all that combined has led us to identifying these locations that need to be addressed sooner rather than later.

E

So there are two spans on the Queen's bound Direction one at the rough cross section would be Clark Street, the other one would be Grace Court, so uh on the queensbound roadway. Both of them are up at that level are two sections of the deck that need some attention.

E

The other two things that we want to address is inside the Clark Street. So if you're driving on Furman, you might have noticed those great uh doors, the MTA facilities. That facility goes through the BQE structure up into the upper level. So there's some work that needs to be done inside that facility of Clark Street. That's combined with our BQE structure, so we'll take that opportunity to address that because the access is facilitated and the last one that we'll we'll also be doing is inside the jaroman structure.

E

So these are the areas that needed attention sooner rather than later, and this is all you know well in advance. This is not an emergency work, but it is an urgent work that we don't want to put off.

E

So looking at it from another angle, these are the two spans, so nothing on the Promenade. It's all just on the Queensland roadway, um so specifically what I was talking about with the Clark Street vent structure. So if you look at this top right picture, it's between the queensbound roadway and the Staten Island bound roadway kind of sandwiched there. So we don't have easy access in that area. The only way to get in there is from the queensbound roadway, there's a manhole that we can climb in obviously to do that we have to close traffic.

E

So while we're doing the work on the deck and the traffic is going to be shifted around anyway, we'll take the opportunity to go down and address these conditions. You see on the bottom left. So obviously this requires us to coordinate with MTA. These are their facilities, uh but you know nothing on the Subways are going to be affected. This is just a matter of making sure that they're comfortable with the way we do the work.

E

um So that's the the Clark Street work, so this would occur simultaneously with the work we're doing on the deck level.

E

The other portion of the work that I mentioned is this drama and garage area right. So that's if you're used to going down to Roman onto Furman, you see that garage door on your left when you open up that door and you go all the way back in there's these structures underneath where there is some work that needs to be done. There's also, these concrete beams that have lost some section. Some concrete has fallen down, so we're going to address those as well.

E

That work obviously doesn't really impact much traffic because it can happen underneath BQE traffic is not affected by it, so that will occur.

E

um You know whenever the contractor is basically set up and ready to go, we're obviously coordinating with the local neighbors for that, so getting back to the main piece of it, which is the deck work. What is it that we're doing so? On the left hand, side we've shown how this concrete is deteriorating, particularly the cantilevers that are hanging out at as you're driving by you see those joints where there is the mesh at every 50 feet.

E

There's a joint like that and that's where the leakage typically happens and as time goes by, it starts spreading further away from The Joint, so the first two to three feet from The Joint either side of it is where more work needs to be done, because the cantilever is hanging out there. This out, we need to pour concrete across all of it. So when we come back and place new, concrete and new rebar, we need to go across all of the lanes for the structure to work together.

E

This is the reason why we have to take traffic off when we do this pore and when concrete is wet. Obviously we can't drive on it and it's not going to last. If you put traffic back on too soon, so we need to give it a little bit of time to to cure and then put the traffic back on. So that's the the work um and in in another direct angle, is just remove the pour concrete, add new rebar for new, concrete and and we're set.

E

um While we're doing that, like I said we will have closure, so that's when they will also go down. A second set of crew will go down into the Clark Street area, address this red spot that you see and this yellow beam, so both of those would be addressed simultaneously.

E

In order to do this work, we have to remove the bad concrete during the overnight hours. So when I say overnight, we're talking 1 am to 5 A.M. This is the only time we're generally allowed to close lanes, and this would be one lane at a time. So the way it will work is we don't want the contractor to remove concrete and then leave it that way for too long and then say.

E

Oh now, I have a weekend shutdown now I'm going to pour so what they will be doing is first figure out what weekend is the closure, which I'll talk about how we come up with those weekends so once that weekend is set prior to that weekend, two weeks give or take for that first set of work is when they would do this prep work during the overnight hours, so they would close one lane at a time on queensbound roadway when they're doing this work above the Staten Island bound traffic to keep the traffic below safe.

E

We might close that lane as well, because we don't want anything falling, but that's when one lane would be open during that one to four a.m. Hours this by the way is very common, a lot of times pretty much everything we can do. We only can do at night. We do inspections at night. We do all kinds of work between one and four. Those are the only hours we're allowed to close a lane.

E

So the you know why I'm not sure you've noticed because it's it's if we do it during those times where the traffic is so low, they can fit in one lane when we do anything more than that. Obviously we have to get much more information out and manage traffic much better. So once this prep is done, then will come this foreclosure weekend for that section, that's directly adjacent to the Joint, because the full depth of the deck, like all of this orange portion needs to be poured.

E

There needs to be a support to hold the wet, concrete right, wet concrete, doesn't hold itself once it cures. It can hold itself. So for that initial time we need to have Provide support underneath so Staten Island would be down to one lane and queensbound would be closed. This is from 2 A.M Saturday to 4 a.m. Monday um at some point during the night. Once we think that this concrete is cured enough. We would remove this support and open up Staten Island bow.

E

So this is the first weekend closure, the subsequent after this right now we go further away from The Joint. Now it's partial depth replacement right, so it's only a little bit of concrete that needs to be removed and replaced. So again it we. We never can get three weekends in a row. We wouldn't even be ready to do work quite that tight right. So throughout the construction season there will be three weekends identified.

E

Let's say the first weekend happens to be in May so two weeks before that they they do the prep work. Then the first weekend happens. Then, let's say the next weekend doesn't happen to be till I, don't know middle of July. Now, though, you won't see any action, it'll be kind of quiet. You know the usual work with whatever we normally do for maintenance might happen, and then in July, just before that weekend a week in advance, they will start doing this.

E

Prep work and again they'll be lane closures and then, when they're ready to pour is when we will have the second closure, which will be only queensbound, closed, Staten Island won't be open at this time and then there will be a third weekend of the same kind. So in summary, there will be prep work, then the first weekend closure, then maybe quiet for a bit. Then the second set of prep work second weekend again, maybe quiet for a few weeks, then prep and then the third weekend.

E

um Oh yeah, um there is a link that we've provided, that you know you'll be able to go, see the whole presentation. So don't worry about taking pictures. You will have access to all the information.

E

um The way we have to achieve these closures obviously is to start closing the ramps that add to the BQE traffic, because we don't want to come all the way to Atlantic and then have everybody get off right. So we start detouring them in advance, um not on the day off. We start detouring them weeks in advance right. So we're already in discussions with Turnpike Authority MTA state DOT, uh Connecticut, DOT, Port Authority to make sure a that they don't do work the weekends we're doing work. So we don't step over each other B.

E

They have massive VMS signs all over the place right so we'll be using their VMS signs to alert drivers well in advance of those weekends. To plan around this, the other thing we're doing is meeting with all the bids and a lot of the neighborhoods and the buildings and so on and trying to get them aware of these weekends. So they can avoid the deliveries to degree feasible.

E

Obviously, not everybody can avoid everything thing but to the degree possible, and then there will be a massive media blitz to also alert people that this weekend is coming use. Mass transit, you know avoid the area if possible, and so on the day off.

E

Obviously, there will still be traffic that will be around, and for that we have a ton of DEA agents that we have identified, including some specific to this area, to make sure that whatever traffic is there keeps moving and then also we've been working about specifically on diverting traffic to other roadways right. So, instead of having people go to Brooklyn Bridge take the tunnel don't come into the area, things of that nature oops.

E

So as far as the mitigation, um you know, I I just listed a bunch of these. In addition to these media blitz and- and you know, asking people to use the other modes of transportation, we also will have pedestrian managers at certain key locations. uh You know because construction season is the warmer months of the year. There is a lot of pedestrian activity as well, so there are certain specific areas that we need to have pedestrian management VMS signs all over the place, we're also working with the Emergency Services.

E

We've met with FDNY and PD multiple times we're walking through how to make sure that people are stationed in certain spaces to make sure in case there's an emergency. Nobody gets hung up in traffic and then for those who live nearby, there's obviously concern with noise. Removing concrete is a noisy operation. We've done some other work in the area and in fact one of the residents thanked us for what a great job we did, because it wasn't as bad as they thought it would be.

E

So that does happen sometimes, but we will be using sound blankets which are sound absorbing rather than just kind of bouncing the sound around and then monitoring the dust and so on. So, there's a lot of effort that has gone into this plan. It's taken a good year of traffic modeling, so we'll go through the detours in a moment and we'll get specifically to the one that the council member mentioned.

E

So the section that will be closed is between Sans and Atlantic, so the for the Staten Island bound closure. The ramps that allowed traffic to get on atillary sands and at the Vine Street on-ramp will be closed so that those are the the main feeders that will need to be rerouted.

E

um Those who are very local will obviously use Foreman Street to come around and get back on at Columbia Street.

E

The prospect Expressway and the tunnel will be set up in the HOV formation, the the am HOV formation so that we basically encourage the traffic to take the tunnel into Lower Manhattan rather than coming into Brooklyn Bridge Manhattan Bridge area.

E

There's a several local Street changes that we will need to make in the real close-up area to make sure that the local traffic that needs to go through can make it, and some of the intersections can keep moving. um There's. Also, a couple of buses in that area that will need to have their bus stops, moved and coordinated, so the primary detour route that will be uh marked is going to be. You know. Those who are not able to get on artillery will be diverted to Third Avenue and 4th Avenue.

E

This will be, of course, heavily manned with ta agents to make sure this keeps moving, but those will be the two primary detour Maps. The third one will be for those who come off. Brooklyn Bridge, who take the Wine Street ramp, would need to go down to Furman Street and come back on at Columbia Street those who are doing that. Obviously, that is a good chunk of traffic, so Foreman Street right now is one way uh one lane each direction for this to function. We will be using.

E

So this is the mapped detour understanding that, obviously, with with all of our gizmos people, will go other ways, but we will be sending them to these routes. These are the the mapped ones we'll be working with the um wazis of the world to keep people there.

E

um Going in the other reaction, so so to get a little bit closer on that area right so farman street is one lane in each direction. For this weekend it will be only two uh one directional, so it'll be two lanes going towards Columbia Street, so that the traffic from that local area that gets diverted down to Foreman Street can make its way uh down into Columbia Street Columbia Street on-ramp will be converted to a two-lane on-ramp to make sure that all of that traffic can get on again.

E

All of this area will have a lot of mitigation. Aside from just the lane configurations,.

E

um So that was for Staten Island bound. That's only one weekend, the the three weekends that we will have, the more extensive closer is tied to queensbound roadway. So all three lanes are closed, and so all of the on-ramps that are adding to that traffic would be closed in advance. So Prospect Expressway continues to operate. They can continue going up. It's just that down here.

E

They wouldn't be adding so that on-ramp down here to prospect would be closed, but those who are already on Prospect will stay there, um encouraging those who are headed to lower Manhattan to go into the tunnel. Those who don't the last place they would be able to get off will be at Atlantic, and then they would be channeled through that area.

E

um So for that you know obviously there's a lot of local street reconfigurations we have to do, but that's Atlantic to Borum to Tillery is a primary route that would be mapped for DeTour for those who made it all the way to Atlantic, Avenue and exited at that last. Exit on the BQE, the other detour that will be set up, will be along Third Avenue.

E

This is also to to give an alternate, because if everybody gets on BQ and tries to get off at Atlantic, that would be you know, definitely a gridlock so trying to disperse the traffic as early as possible. Is this Third Avenue?

E

um So those are the two primary mapped routes, um the only people that would be so those are the primary for all traffic right. The only people that would be encouraged to take anything different are those who are headed to lie or to the airports right. So it's not everybody. It's purely hey.

E

If you're going to the airport instead of coming around and adding to all of that congestion, take Linden Boulevard oops, sorry, um so we actually and I have a slide I'm going to go into it after I finish the main section, the actual number of vehicles that go that way are fairly Limited in terms of again we're talking on a weekend um in terms of trucks. We actually have the counts for it, but so this is not a primary detour route by any means. It's purely as we do Advanced notifications.

E

We will be telling people hey if you're headed to lie. You might be better off doing this than going through all of the other areas um and again to make all this work. Manhattan side also has to work. If Manhattan backs up, then then nothing can get off, Manhattan, Bridge or Brooklyn Bridge, and it all backs into Brooklyn anyway. So we'll also do some modifications in that area, particularly at Manhattan Bridge. When everybody gets off uh some modifications to lower Manhattan, there will be ta agents.

E

There, there'll be pet managers there as well to keep things moving along.

E

So when is all this happening, and how does it all work uh right now we're in the midst of uh getting a Contractor on board we've already advertised the contract? That doesn't mean we can't make changes minor changes to you know this block that block put more signs here, put a t agents. Those are all manageable, but we need to get this moving because we need to do this within the 2023 construction season.

E

So it's been advertised once a contractor is on board which we expect to happen very early in 2023, then we will be able to the first deliverable that that contractor has is to give us the three weekends that they anticipate being ready to do the work that we are asking them to do, keeping in mind that we've given them two other documents. One is an Outreach plan, so they realize that there's got to be a significant Outreach effort and they need to give us the timing.

E

Based on that, um we have to give them the the timing. You know, we've we've also created a table of the no-go weekends already right so they're. You know no Mother's Day, no long weekends. All of those have already been crossed off. You know some other major events that occur around the city.

E

All of those have been crossed off, so there are limited number of weekends where they can do the work, so they need to look at their productivity when they'll be ready, when they'll have the equipment and material that they need, identify those three weekends as a first deliverable once they come on board and that's what we will then disseminate widely.

E

So people can then plan around those weekends, so that will be the first like big information that we will put out, obviously, as those weekends get closer, then we'll ramp up the Outreach and make sure that people are really recognizing that it's coming um so again. This would be three weekends spread out over this march to October window. There would be prep work ahead of each of those weekends. That's when the overnight closures would be so there will be gaps when there may not be much construction activity.

E

um Just you know waiting for that next weekend, where we can have closure. We don't want steel plates out there unnecessarily. If you don't have to geraldmon, Street work will occur concurrently and then, as we get more information, we'll certainly be sharing a lot more before I go into questions. I do want to go into this other information from the conversation we had previously and the information that was requested about why we picked certain certain streets.

E

So this is the route that was mapped on our detour plan. The recommendation we heard was that McDonald's might be a better option uh and- and that's certainly something we can- we can consider our concern when we looked at it. You know that is the freight route goes through. The way we have it laid out in our detour. Obviously, what's marked and what's actually experienced in, the neighborhood sometimes can compete. We don't have an issue with with looking at the alternate um where our other concern was.

E

You know the that route kept the vehicles on local Street, the shortest number of blocks, the other way they're going a few more blocks, but if that's the route that you know is more comfortable and considered safer, that's fine. uh The other thing I want to add also is in that weekend we will have our people out everywhere and we will be able to react as things you know. We see something not only.

E

We have that we have the TMC right, a traffic Management Center that gets all kinds of feeds from different places, with the cameras at our place, so they will be able to react in real time and let our contractor know hey something's, not working this detour. We need to either reconsider, think about it or maybe the first weekend we see things worked a little better. Maybe we should try something different and for a subsequent weekend we might try something that makes more sense.

E

So there is flexibility in thinking this through, and uh you know we are taking this other option um quite seriously. It's not something that you know we we put aside. um Our concern, like I said, was that it's that many more blocks.

E

We did check, though, that the number of trucks, where is that there it is the actual additional number of trucks that would be uh coming based on the detour marking that we're talking about is relatively small I'm, not saying any truck should be anywhere I'm, simply saying it's not a massive volume based on the truck data that we have looked at, because it's a weekend the airports get most of their deliveries during the weekday.

E

So these are fewer number of trucks that would be going down this way, but we can go with either of the detour routes.

E

Oh uh I didn't put my glasses on hang.

A

E

No 100, that's total Vehicles 1121 is the total Vehicles 146 is the total number of trucks right?

E

So during the peak hours, which would be the AM PM, you know the the busy time that's 22 trucks.

C

So that's our presentation. Would you like to give remarks before we go on to questions.

G

Good evening, everyone, my name- is Rita Joseph council member for the 40th District I just wanted to thank you for the presentation. Thank you for coming out, so we can hear about this and I'm looking forward, I'm here to listen and learn and make sure you tell all your neighbors what's happening for those that didn't make it here tonight. Thank you.

C

Thank you so much council, member and I believe people can come to the center Mike here. If anyone would like to ask questions and we're here as long as you need us.

H

Hi good evening, I am the Reverend Sheldon Hamblin I am the.

C

Would it be possible to speak a little louder? I just want to make sure I can hear you.

H

Can you hear me yes, thank you good evening. I am the Reverend uh Sheldon Hamblin I am director at St Paul's Church in the village of Flatbush, uh Saint Paul's runs uh north south over Caton, so I see have you factored in um High religious holidays, Easter, uh Palm, Sunday, Passover,.

C

Absolutely it's our goal to not have these weekends occur on major religious holidays or community events that are significant. Thank you. So much.

I

Hi um hi I live on East 5th, between uh Greenwood and Fort, Hamilton Parkway, so, basically right at the foot of the exit off of the prospects Expressway and onto East 5th and here's what I can tell you is going to happen. I'm sorry, I, can't here's what I can tell you it's going to happen because it happens already, there's not supposed to be any commercial traffic at that exit currently and they do constantly they've lived there for seven years.

I

I've, never once seen a commercial vehicle ticketed for exiting there, even though they do it all the time. I also sleep right on Fifth, Avenue and so I can tell or Fifth Street and I can tell you. The commercial traffic comes through at Night hits the speed bump. No one slows down when they come off the expressway if they hit the speed bump going 30 miles an hour and it's deafening. My whole house shakes this is already happening and so with additional I mean six trucks a night six trucks an hour overnight.

I

We already get that all the time. So here's my biggest concern because I can tell you what's going to happen, I watch it happen all the time when East 5th Street backs up because there's a light at Fort, Hamilton Parkway the whole, but when the traffic is heavy, the whole block will fill up with traffic and it takes like two or three lights to get through Fort, Hamilton Parkway and it's a very complicated intersection. I'm sure you're, aware the the expressway exits East 5th Street comes up Greenwood tees into East 5th Street.

I

What happens is that people are coming off the expressway. They see the whole block full up, and so they will stop and back up in the middle of the street onto East 5th Street, so they can turn onto Greenwood to get over to McDonald Avenue that already happens constantly and the more traffic there is the more that's going to happen, no matter. If it's the middle of the night or not, it's really. Is it illegal highly? They do it anyway.

I

So I just want to make sure that the dot is aware that this situation is already happening in the neighborhood is already tremendously problematic and very dangerous, and it's only going to get worse so.

C

Thank you so much for flagging that concern and I just I would note. um Should we proceed with an East, Fifth plan. um I believe this is one of the places we would put Tas. Do you want to talk a little bit about that tanvi.

E

Sure so we have multiple tea agents identified in in this area, regardless of which route we pick, we will place them accordingly and one of the things the reason we have them is so that they know to override the lights and keep the traffic moving and then obviously we'll also be asking pde to help us not have the illegal things happen. So it's it's a combination, effort that we will need.

C

Yeah but but absolutely hear the concern and one of the reasons why we're considering the alternate route. Thank you.

J

Okay hi, my name is Debbie herden and I. um I want to.

C

Is it possible to turn that back up I just am a little hard of hearing and it's hard to hear.

J

Hello: okay, my name is Debbie herden and I want to Second um what was said. Prior I actually lived for five years um on East 5th Street between um Caton and Fort, Hamilton, Parkway and now I just live around the corner, so I do see traffic backing up every every single day. Trucks, illegal trucks on East, 5th, I agree with that. I do think.

J

We've discussed that um taking traffic off at 10th and putting it down McDonald is is a much preferable route because McDonald already takes a lot of truck traffic and East Fifth has um East 5th. Has a public library East 5th has P.S 130 East 5th has a playground, East 5th, no more deaths in our neighborhood? That's what I have to say here: no more traffic deaths in our neighborhood, also, wherever those that traffic is going to be diverted and turning.

J

We need pedestrian, only intervals, pedestrian only intervals wherever these, this traffic is going to you know, come through our neighborhood and be turning.

C

I'm, sorry, you said pedestrian only intervals, yeah.

J

During traction or generally, what for turns when this, when you know these extra trucks are coming through our neighborhood, we need to protect pedestrians and cyclists and have give them their own phase and have the trucks wait and let everyone cross, and then they turn.

C

Thank you. Families for Safe Streets are such a critical voice in the city. So I really appreciate you being here tonight and raising those concerns.

K

Hi, my name is Elizabeth Denis and I live at the corner of Caton and Coney. Island Avenue and I just want to note that one of the problems that already exists along Caton and I also bike and walk many places in the neighborhood and kind of all the places you've mapped out here and continues on Lyndon is there's just a very high volume of trucks already and especially there's an extremely high volume of illegal 53-foot Cab trucks, which are too wide too long for the for any of the intersections in the area.

K

And these trucks are, like you know, the intersection of Caton and Coney Island Avenue, which most of you are going to probably be going by later. Today.

K

You know they often make turns that don't fit in the intersection, and at that location there are two leading pedestrian intervals and right now those trucks, especially the really large ones, are the ones infringing on those leading pedestrian intervals, because they don't have the ability to turn when any other car is in the intersection and honestly they don't even have the space to turn when the intersection is completely clear and supposed to be for pedestrians and bicyclists to get a head start to be safer.

K

So I was wondering you know when you're talking about adding more trucks to this area. I know it's a fairly small volume and hopefully, with the announcements ahead of time, people will reschedule, but night time is really dangerous for vulnerable Road users like pedestrians and cyclists, and there have been too many crashes in this corridor already that have injured and killed people. So I'm wondering what can be done.

K

You know both within the scope of these detours and longer term, to you know, fix this problem where we have these drugs that aren't supposed to be anywhere in the city, making it Danger dangerous for residents. In the area and I guess also, my other question: is you mentioned that there's a weight sensor you've been doing on the BQE I'm wondering you know how many of those trucks are just illegal trucks that we should be working on getting out of the city.

K

You know the longer a truck is the heavier it is, and we shouldn't be having those we shouldn't be planning for them on the BQE. We shouldn't be planning for them anywhere in the city. We should be making sure that they're getting off the streets and keeping our family safe. Thank you so much. Thank you.

C

I I completely agree with you and I I apologize that our freight experts, not here tonight, you did have a family emergency right before the meeting. If you want to give me your email I'm happy to connect her to you, if you want to get into more detail, but I can talk about what we're already doing and what the plan is going forward. So the first thing I'll note is that a major part of the three-pronged approach to planning the future of the BQE in Brooklyn, the third prong- is looking at Freight.

C

uh The city hall has launched a multi-agency initiative to work with EDC dot, industry partners and community members, and and would love to include any of you in this process to think about how we can better divert trucks from our local roads. We know the BQE has been a critical Corridor for Freight, and you know going down to two lanes: we've seen some of them move on to our streets and also in Sunset Park and Red Hook, with the increase of next day delivery. We've also seen an increase in in facilities that deploy these trucks.

C

So we a hundred percent, recognize that it is a real issue and it is a safety concern um so I. You know, I really hope that you and others will participate in the the focus groups, we're going to be having this year to think about better Alternatives and we're also moving forward to implement the Freight New York City plan, uh which was announced by the prior Administration, but is now in the process of being implemented. So we can think about better uses for cargo bikes and Marine highways.

C

So I would love to talk to you more about that, and if you give me your email, I'm very happy to connect you to Denise, and the last thing I'll mention is that the good news is that we are on track to implement way in motion on the cantilever of the BQE. We passed legislation last year at this at the state level, with the help assembly, member and others, to make sure that we can put these sensors onto the BQE to identify overweight trucks. We do have NYPD out there, I get weekly sets of them.

C

Taking you know, 200 or less. You know it's usually like 100 to 200 trucks off the road and ticketing them, but that's not enough. So we are are on track to implement that this year and I I do hope that that will have a ripple effect across a number of our roadways because they know that it's not acceptable for them to be on there because they're getting tickets. So it's something that's a major focus of the administration and of the city and I really look forward to getting into this more with all of you.

L

Hi there, my name is Tom Duffy I'm grateful to be Bobby and johanna's. Constituent I'm also grateful for all the effort that you guys have put into this. It's not possible to do this painlessly. I recognize that a quick, personal anecdote that prompts this question. I just had plans for a major Venture uh this past weekend that were months years in the planning and severe weather, stopped those plans. So you are going to be choosing weekends well in advance.

L

What could be the impact of severe weather, which we are seeing increasingly on those plans and how you do? How do you deal with that? Thank you.

E

um So, construction, uh I guess you know we pretty much deal with weather on a regular basis. It's it's pretty much a given in in everything that we do. One of the good things, if you would call it good, is that we're working in a very limited section. So if we see inclement weather coming, um you know unless it's like a tsunami coming, that's a whole different deal, but if you're just talking about rain or heavy winds or something we can work around that we can erect.

E

You know measures to protect the area that we need to do the work. Obviously certain kinds of weather: it's more risky to do detours, because people get confused and we don't want to do that either. So we will be taking that into account to the extent feasible right. We can't predict the weather too far in advance, so there will be some give and take, but we will certainly have measures to do the work for most of the weather conditions.

C

And I'll just add for our long-term fix for the BQE. uh This Administration is really dedicated to resilient and sustainable design. We know this is a city of water. We recognize the climate events that are changing. As you mentioned, we want to build a better structure than we have right now and so I'm hoping that we'll have better infrastructure as part of this plan.

M

Hi I'm Joe Alexander, um so my wife and I were talking before like we both agree that the highway needs fixed. We don't use it, but it would be unconscionable for us to like fight this and it. You know these this planning and the conditions to cost human life right, but like we don't have that sense of urgency about East 5th Street, because we're not talking about car Centric plans. We're talking about walking, pedestrians and I know your Dot and I know that that's a secondary concern.

M

I can see it in the plan that it didn't even occur to you. That McDonald may be safer for pedestrians, but it's more blocks. That was that was in your like. Oh wow, I didn't even think it's more blocks, though, for a car to drive, but no one crosses that street because the cemeteries across it, so it just doesn't make sense and there's stoplights at every block. You know and I I live at East Fifth above tonino's Pizza like right above it on the third floor.

M

So from my window, I have three kids, my wife's teaches at PS 130 here at the lower school. So we live across from probably the busiest playground in the zip code, I'm guessing um and we see car after car on slow times blast through that stop sign at 50 60 miles an hour, not not I've seen it. We see it continuously without a stitch of enforcement, never I've. Never in my years of living in that location, seen a car pulled over I've, never heard a siren, I've, never seen flashing lights.

M

We've told the word this you're not you're, not with the NYPD right. So you can't control that. However, you baked a plan that depends on enforcement to make this plan safe right and if I told you that we ran out of concrete it's just not going to be available on the dates that we planned this. Would you have to go back to the drawing board come on? The answer is yes, you would have to go back to the you cannot get an essential part of your plan delivered.

M

You can't do it and if an essential part of your plan is enforcement of safety and you're, all you've already told us you're aware that Fifth Street has been unsafe and you've done. Nothing up to this point is that correct.

C

I I can I respond to your full question because I.

M

C

Few points yeah I've, listened to your question. I have to say, I'm a pedestrian I, don't have a driver's license and do.

M

You live in this neighborhood. You live on Fifth, Street,.

C

I grew up on Vanderbilt Street, I, don't yeah and so I'm very familiar.

M

I used to live on Vanderbilt. This is I I'm. Just saying we're talking about this plan, we're not talking about you as a you didn't make this plan.

C

M

C

No, but can I respond please um so Dot's current mission is to make the city as safe as possible for all Road users, and this commissioner, is particularly committed to making it as safe as possible for pedestrians and cyclists. So I can speak from my own experience and say as a pedestrian who has crossed that street and is familiar that I used to play in that playground as a child. I know what you're talking about right.

C

What we were looking at when we made this or when Tommy made this design, was that there are bus routes along McDonald Avenue. There are people who cross that street, and so we were trying to minimize the amount of trucks on residential streets.

C

We have said here that we we hear the concerns, and so if, if the community is telling us that East Fifth is not the right way to go, we're very happy to look at McDonald, and so you know we we work for you, we're here to really respond and make sure that we understand the community needs and I really appreciate all the electeds arranging this meeting tonight. So we can make sure we're doing the right plan for you.

M

Okay, thank you. Thank.

C

N

I'm Brenda Walker I'm, a homeowner with the Caton Park Block Association uh Homeowner of 36 years spent looking at and hearing the truck traffic on Caton Avenue, so boots on the ground and eyes on the prize. We live just in the little Darkness below the n in the word Caton up on your map.

N

The way it's currently cut off, you can't quite see us, but we're there with the trucks going by at far more than six per hour at any given time, including four o'clock in the morning and I just want to bring up one single memory Tickler for you today, based on my 40 years as a medical writer is my analogy when you think Caton Avenue think Cardiac Arrest.

N

This is an artery that is so clogged that apparently it is a Perpetual heart attack between the Verrazano, Narrows, Bridge and Montauk Point. It is a choked artery filled with delivery, kids out on beater bikes, massive numbers of athletes and children at the parade grounds and at PS 249 buses, traffic of every possible imaginable kind, and it is in a state already of Perpetual gridlock.

N

It is unimaginable to contemplate that this tiny sclerotic artery between Coney, Island, Avenue and Flatbush Avenue, which currently takes an average of 30 to 40 minutes to Traverse, could absorb another drop of traffic.

N

And so when we saw this, we really lost it because it's simply unimaginable we who live in that tiny hyper local chunk routinely, spend three lights waiting to turn off our own blocks, but the stakeholders go as far as Linden, Boulevard and Beyond, because it is a choke point literally a choke point. So when you look at that and you take it all the way out to practically the Queen's border- and you are talking about detouring people to the van wyk and the Long Island Expressway.

N

By way of that tiny little two-lane country road that is now functioning as an effective Interstate, we just slap our farts and go it ain't going to work so I'm going to put that out there, not because it's just our hyper local concern, because we are going to have more traffic, more brake, lining particles, more of all the environmental assault that we have chosen to live near as homeowners, but because it is, is simply inconceivable.

N

If you put someone standing there boots on the ground that that chunk between Coney and Flatbush could absorb two more trucks, so Caton Avenue, Cardiac Arrest. Thank you.

C

Thank you for illustrating that so clearly and and I'm not going to sit up here and tell you that this is going to be easy. You know this is we feel this is critical work that has to happen on our Highway and we're trying to figure out the best way to do it, and so it's really helpful to hear your perspectives tonight. So we can figure out the best route for these three weekends.

C

Thank you and I'm. Sorry, if I may, my colleague just shared with me, via text and I, wanted to make sure I responded to the the gentleman who just spoke earlier. There have been a number of safety improvements on East 5th recently, including a raised crosswalk, improved signal timing and also a two-way uh protected bike lane on Fort, Hamilton and and if I may I was gonna, say and if there, if there are additional ideas that you have of what would be helpful, we're here to listen right. So there.

C

I I'm I am I, am not the police. I am happy to communicate that to my colleagues, but I am happy to talk about Dot fixes and bring them to brayer the next next question. Please.

F

Hi, my name is Ann gaudette and I'm, with Caitlin Park, homeowners, association, I, couldn't have said it. I probably could have said it more briefly than Brenda, but not quite so eloquently and I will reinforce every word.

F

She said because it is indeed a show code, choke choke point and it's you know the area, so I don't I'm not going to keep reviewing that um I, don't know honestly how much more we can I, don't know how much more we can deal with, although I'm very thankful that you're having these presentations and you're allowing our input. So with that in mind, I'd like you to consider burden sharing, I think the idea of McDonald Avenue is fine, but there's also something that nobody's talking about and that's Parkside, so I'm curious.

F

If there's not a way to divert some traffic hither and yawn, all right I mean yes, this is a logical straight line, but it's an awfully narrow straight line. So you know so that's one thought the other. Is you the other? Is you mentioned that there's a presentation online but I? Don't if you could just announce it at the end of the where, where we would find it that would be really helpful. I didn't see it on that card. It's it's.

C

On the yeah thank.

F

You Sean it's.

C

Also on the on the bridges uh page of the dot website, and we can get you that link. That's.

F

Great um thank you respond to um your first question. You mentioned that there's uh you're, taking great um strides towards sound mitigation and I'm sure you filed accordingly I'm just curious what you're doing with the concrete dust do you? Are you mitigating that, in any.

O

F

E

Sure um I also want to answer the the previous part that you were mentioning the the as you saw. We had multiple detour routes, so we are trying to spread the the traffic and before it even gets to this area. We want to get people completely away from the neighborhood, so we are trying to address and each thing is only going to have a little bit of impact, but hopefully, cumulatively it is manageable. It's not going to be great we're not going to try to pretend, but we have been working with the TA agents.

E

Part of the reason we have the T agents is. We know that if we just left it to function on its own, it's not going to work. Someone has to be there to kind of guide and push that along. So we are, and in terms of the sound um and.

F

The congregation.

E

Absolutely that's part of the the work effort. Okay,.

F

And uh what was the other thing I think? That's it so I want to. Thank you very much. I, um oh I know there was one other question, so you had mentioned that there's going to be prep, work, leading up to the weekends, how many weekends of prep work and what would the prep work entail if you could speak to some of that, so we have a better sense overall of what each incident of these three episodes. What each incident actually looks like, and thank you very much really appreciate your help.

F

These projects do need to be done. Thank.

C

You I appreciate that and tanvi's just pulling up this slide. I know, there's a number of map slides that we went through so this one in particular, talks about the prep work.

E

Right so, as we talked about, the three weekends would be spread out over march to November time frame right, so um the prep work happens overnight. It's not on a weekend. It's the Monday through Friday 1am, to 5 a.m, which is the only window we get to work on the bridge and it would be one lane is closed. They work in that lane. The other lane is open to traffic. That's sort of set up, so those would be roughly 10 nights worth of work for the before the first weekend.

E

Obviously, once the contractor gets out there and they start working, that number could slide, but it's it's in that range of few nights, two to three weeks, Max that they're doing the work overnight then the weekend shutdown comes. They finish that then again, like I was saying. If the first weekend is in May, the next one may not be till July, you wouldn't see much in between and then closer to that July weekend. There would be few nights in advance where the prep work would get done and I also want to just note.

E

You know part of the reason we want to keep working on. The BQE is that we want to keep the vehicles on and on the roads that are meant to carry that kind of traffic. If we don't keep it maintained and we don't have it available, then you know some traffic may disappear, but not all of it is going to disappear, and so that's part of the reason why we need to do the work. We're doing.

E

C

P

um So I won't talk about Cayden um because everyone else has, but I do so. I, don't know if anyone else did this, but I went on Google, Maps and I'm. An engineer by training. I was trying to figure out the best route because I'm a professional traffic engineer and then I I realized like I'm trying I'm like trying to solve this problem and I'm wondering are we are we asking the right question like? Has anyone wondered why we have the triple cantilever? Like you know, we talk about sustainability right after every every 50 years.

P

We have to repair this thing and it costs billions of dollars now I'm, not looking for an answer right now, but I do want people to think I'm like. Why is this sustainable to to to rebuild this thing? Every 50 Years and spend I. Don't know one billion two billion dollars, um I, don't know if you guys have talked about it, but you know I. The best way to fix a problem is to avoid it and that's just how I go about it. Thank you.

C

I I love the way, you're thinking and actually we you know, we launched the BQE visioning process last week and I want to put in a plug. We are launching a community visioning council applications are open through the end of next week, I'm happy to share that link with you, but you can go to nyc.gov BQE.

C

The link is right up there and get involved, but we we are going to be doing a court or wide visioning Council that meets once and then we're going to break up by geographies we're going to be breaking up by issue area like environmental justice, Transportation Justice, Freight I would love to have you be a part of that signed.

P

Up for it already, oh.

C

Amazing, so I will be seeing.

P

You a lot but I.

C

Really would encourage everyone to get involved. um You don't have to live next to the BQE, can deliver to be a part of this process, we're all impacted by it daily. So I love your thinking. Thank you appreciate.

A

It one thing just answer: Brenda's question completely: is it correct that there are going to be approximately 20 nights of closures and somewhere around nine full days of closures, because if I did your math right, you said two weeks leading up a three-day weekend a week leading up a three-day weekend a week leading up a three-day weekend so 29 days. So we're not talking about three weekends. We're talking about 29 days.

E

Okay, definitely please clarify that. Please do so when I'm saying prep I'm talking about during the week taking a lane out, which we do now at night, 1 am to 5 a.m. Overnight, single lane closures, no detour. We do single lane closures all the time we did it. Last week we have some coming up. Next week, most people barely even notice. We tell people, we send out notifications, but it's something we can do because at night the traffic is reduced in volume enough that it can fit on one lane.

E

This is why we can get those closures. Otherwise we have to do years of planning. We cannot do that. Otherwise, so the 29 nights in you're talking about are not detours. Prep times is just overnight single end closures. The weekends are the three weekends that we've been talking about, that's where detours will be in place, that's where the tea agents and all of that will be in place.

E

So it's well Friday night to Monday morning to two full days of detour.

C

So so, six days of detour, so six weekend days of detours just six days over the course of likely the summer.

Q

Hi, my name is Jeffrey.

C

Q

Live a cup sorry yeah.

C

Sorry, good clarification: okay,.

Q

Yeah, it's a great collaboration, love a couple walk from here and starting off by saying I understand this work is very important and we do not want the bridge to put the cantilever to fall down. um I want to push on a point that someone mentioned about enforcement uh I. Think a couple of times. You've said uh we will have teas here to direct traffic here and there I work right by the entrance of the Holland Tunnel I routinely see drivers just being like I.

Q

Don't care you're telling me to go this route I like this road, better I'm just going to go there and I want to know if we have anyways and I think some of things are coming up here. These are problems we already have city-wide they're going to get worse here. What do we do about drivers who say I insist on going through this road? You, you I, don't care what you say. Our duty Tas have actual authority to stop these drivers.

C

Well, I think our number one priority for this particular project is to say: don't come to these areas.

Q

F

Number one is like.

C

Don't drive here.

F

Even though I'd be taking the train, the bus other.

C

Routes or I saw someone rollerblades, maybe rollerblades right. um So that's the number one priority I mean I. I am not a I, don't work for the police department, so I can't speak to their internal practices.

L

M

C

Have great confidence in our sister agencies to do the best that they they can when faced with a large vehicle right.

Q

Yeah so I mean, let me let me be clear: I'm not asking for, can we get the police to police more I'm saying? Can we figure out other ways, because clearly this is not working? Do.

C

You want to speak about design elements.

E

um Well, so there will be certain areas that we will actually have to like completely close off, because we don't want people wandering down areas that we don't want them um and we will be asking for additional police presence for certain areas that we know there are concerns. um Obviously they will be spread thin. This is a big detour area. There's going to be lots of areas, so the TA agents are going to be there to direct the traffic. They cannot obviously ticket to anybody.

E

They can't do those things, but we will be asking for PD presence, okay and have them floating around, and you know help out at any particular location if you're, seeing repeat behaviors that are causing a problem, we'll certainly have them on tap to try and assist as best they can so.

Q

Building on you know, trying to get people to go other ways. Have we considered incentivizing people to take other modes of Transit? Have we considered making Subways air train Etc free for the weekends, at their closures, to try to get some of the traffic off of the cars, at least for these weekends right.

C

So um you know the New York City does not control the Subways. That is the MTA.

C

um You know we work regularly with our partners to make sure that there are uh that there is um heightened uh frequency during times like these, um but I. We unfortunately do not have the ability to make the Subways for y'all, though I would love that.

O

J

O

Joanne Brown. Thank you very much for your presentation, um so enforcement um just so you have some clarity about where I am I'm at the dog leg of Linden Boulevard and uh Caton Avenue. So that's Route, 27. So a reminder that there are two truck routes going through community board: uh Community District 14., there's both Church Avenue and Caton Avenue both come off of McDonald Avenue, so you have two uh available networks in that you can move that traffic. Okay, now enforcement NYPD, so I could I can stare outside all day and I could see.

O

10 53-foot trucks go by an hour, if not more, that needs to be enforced and most uh police officers working during their tours during the day. Don't even know that a 50 foot through 53-foot truck is illegal within the city limits.

O

So what I'm asking are elected officials is to help us by bringing in the State Police during these six weekends, not a heavy lift, bring in State Police to help us monitor these areas where we are going to see an increase in traffic enforcement increase, especially 53 foot trucks.

O

um The next thing is that for these six weekends, so my understanding is that the BQE really needs a larger overhaul. What you're doing is just trying to mitigate some of these very problematic areas that could be dangerous so over these six weekends, I really want to encourage dot, to have an uh your personnel that goes out and actually tallies trucks, uh cars, any kind of vehicle coming down these streets.

O

So that can be archived that when you go back out to do another intervention on this structure that you can look back and say, okay, this is what we saw. This is what has to happen, and then the the last thing that I want to bring up is I'm actually kind of excited about this, automated uh enforcement of overweight trucks.

O

um But what I will say is that automated enforcement only um penalizes the trucking company or the Hauling Company, depending on how you're going to capture the data. What really needs to happen is the driver needs to be cited and given points, because that's how you're going to change the behavior. Thank you very much. Thank you.

A

John we can, we can talk offline about State, Police or enforcement. I will say and I know. People may here disagree with me. We have worked extensively with the 72nd Precinct about 53-foot trucks, actually on the prospect Expressway going on um by the Ocean Parkway access road.

A

Now, one of the points that I think a lot of people here might are probably aware of, but something that dot should know, is that we are at the crossroads of three police precincts and three Community boards, and so this entire stretch of Caton Avenue is a no man's land that we do not have as much police presence as we should get.

A

We do not have as much resources as we get, because the buck kind of always gets passed and um I I do think that we need a lot of very specific um help from Dot and from the sit from City Hall to make sure if we have traffic enforcement, be it from NYPD or dot that they're actually here on all of those days, because um you know, depending on what side of the street in Caton Avenue are you're in a different police precinct. Three different police precincts, so it's really really difficult.

C

Thank you I remember. We spoke about this in the context of another project and I. Think it's a great point that we can talk to our colleagues about at NYPD for these three particular weekends, and also note that our our Borough commissioner Keith Bray I know has spoken to the local precincts as well already and will continue to be in conversation with them. As this moves forward.

F

R

You hello, my name is Mike rosenbluth I live on East 3rd Street and I've been a Kensington resident for 33 years.

R

um It would help me if you could put back the slide with the neighborhood that we're in and I can refer to a couple of issues on the slide there. It is beautiful. Thank you so.

R

I also thank the folks who put this meeting together: Bobby shahana hanif council member. Thank you all you folks, D.O.T. Thank you very much.

R

I'm just wondering as I looked at this slide, that the root on from the prospect to McDonald Avenue has a dotted line, whereas the one on East, 5th Street has a solid line.

R

Did you say that the McDonald route was actually an option, or would it not make more sense to make that the solid line and the turn at Caton Avenue to be the main turn point? It's wider it. It already accommodates trucks, buses, large vehicles and so forth.

R

I'm just wondering what the logic was from the D.O.T or maybe you could explain it that McDonald Avenue was not considered the main possibility, where the exit on the prospect already accommodates many many buses like the B103 uh trucks, large trucks and so forth, and if it can be accommodated on McDonald Avenue with a left turn and may I add a possible left turn phase implemented. Just like the right turn was for Fort Hamilton a left turn phase for left turning trucks onto Caton.

R

It may alleviate a lot of the fears that are in this room about the playgrounds, the school, the ps130 playground, which is active on the weekends um and I'm just trying to get some sort of an idea of whether that can be made real rather than the East 5th Street option, which I think people here would agree would be the Lesser option.

R

J

Yeah, thank you.

C

And that's what I've said from the top. um You know we we put forward this original proposal on East 5th, we heard very clearly from community members and from assembly, member Carol and others that there were major concerns here. So the solid line represents the initial plan. The dotted line represents, what's been presented as a better option by a number of community members uh to your question about why the initial route was chosen, it was to um to focus on having trucks on the fewest number of residential streets.

C

So turning off of that 10th, Avenue exit onto McDonald would take trucks through many more streets to get to the TR the mapped truck route than Woody's fifth So. To that point, we we hear you right. So that's why there is that dotted line up there and why we're here considering that tonight, because because we want to make sure as I said earlier, we we work for you and we want to make sure that we're representing what the community is asking for and Tommy. If you want to talk a little more about modeling or anything.

E

uh Right so I mean all of this was modeled had been discussed and uh when we initially released this plan and just to be clear, Our intention always was to go, get community feedback and then adjust.

E

It was never an intention. We wouldn't be doing presentations. You wouldn't have seen this presentation if we hadn't come out and started talking about it. So the fact that we were out talking- and you heard about this presentation is because we wanted to get out get input because as much as we tried to understand every block, we can't we're gonna have to rely on more feedback to make sure we get the correct information and make the changes we need to make and that's re.

E

The reason why we're doing such an extensive meeting I've been in a meeting like this one or two times a week for last several weeks and I will continue to do that for next several weeks. So please understand we're really trying to get information, but there's only so much we can tell from sitting at the office from the modeling from whatever we're doing. We know that the real information will come from some of this input, we're getting and we'll modify. What's modifiable. There are certain things that we can't.

E

We can't make everybody go away for that weekend, although that would be fun so we'll manage, but we are really taking your input seriously, and this is why this slide is ready, because we did take the input we got and we had it to put in front of you. So we could talk through it and.

R

And just one final thing on the southbound two lanes of McDonald Avenue, which are on the side of Greenwood Cemetery, and somebody did mention that here. I, don't think anybody in there would mind if the traffic was a little heavier.

R

The people on the Northbound side, which are two full lanes over a three full Lanes, including the parking Lane I, think they would feel a little bit disturbed, but those folks are about 60 feet back from where the traffic would occur on East 5th, Street, they're, 10 and 20 feet back.

R

Those are the people who I'm concerned about and I. Thank you thank.

C

You and I do just want to mention also. You know we are trying to think holistically about the neighborhood right, there's another school on Fort Hamilton um and some of those students may cross McDonald's, and so you know you think about that. Those students May interact with these truck traffic as well, so we're really trying to think holistically about the whole neighborhood and have trucks on as few residential streets as possible to avoid those interactions to your point about families for Safe Streets and making sure that we end crashes in our city.

C

We need to make sure about, however, think about how everyone is interacting with the traffic and so we're really trying to come to the best solution for everyone.

S

Hi, my name is Neil DeMoss I live down towards the bottom of the map on Beverly and East 4th, but I want to definitely endorse what my neighbors are all saying about: East, Fifth being a bad idea and I'm. You know glad to see that big dogs being considered. um You know I've spent a lot of time up there. Taking my son to the playground. You know walking around the neighborhood driving on that Street and East Fifth between Fort, Hamilton and Greenwood is probably the last place in the city.

S

I would ever want to send a car down at any time of day. So it again it's great to to see Alternatives being considered. I also want to Second what a bunch of people have said in terms of Caden already being a disaster in sort of an increasing disaster and wanted to ask what um information dot has in terms of what happens when cars and trucks can't fit onto that road.

S

um You know again: I live on it's Beverly, East Fourth and we're already getting an increasing number of trucks coming down our no through commercial traffic Street at all, I always day. You know it's about I've counted it's about 10 10, an hour during weekday days, but it's all times a day and night we've had drugs, they're too large, coming through and doing the same thing and trying to make turns and getting stuck in intersections and hitting parked cars and setting off chain reactions and things.

S

um So really. My question is like what data does dot have in terms of sort of what the secondary impacts are of? If people can't get onto Kate, you know more people trying to get into Caton. They can't. um Where does that traffic go, and is there any way to mitigate that I'll.

C

Begin to answer and then I'll hand it off to tonvi for the data, but I do want to say, as I've said earlier this evening. This is not going to be easy right, like we know that these three weekends are going to be tough in the city and we really want people to to the greatest extent possible, not drive their cars, these weekends and we're going to be blitzing on the rate we've bought.

C

We're planning radio buys we're working with the freight industry to educate them about these three weekends and try to encourage other delivery hours. So really, the top priority is to make sure that as few people are driving during these three weekends as possible, I know people are still going to drive their cars for various reasons, but I'm not going to tell you that these weekends are going to be easy. We're just trying to make them as as palatable as possible and I'll give it to Tommy to talk about data.

E

um So we do collect traffic data all the time we have information on how often incidents occur when incidents occur. What is the ripple effect? So all of that has gone into the modeling one of the things that can be done.

E

Quite simply is let the traffic back up on Prospect right like we, we would have to let the traffic stay on the highways and they should be looking at the uh one of the things we'll be able to do is tell them how long the delay is and hope the people will just avoid that trip that they were about to take. So one of the good things about having that monitoring system that's ongoing and having all of the VMS signs all over is we'll be flashing.

E

That information you know avoid the area there's x, amount of delay here you know, consider alternate route well in advance, so they don't come in here.

E

One of the things I do want to say is that there have been some major work that has happened in a few locations where a major highway had to be shut down for certain work, and if that becomes a prolonged time, then people start ignoring the warnings, but when it is a short window where people are told, listen stay away this weekend, there has been decent amount of success in actually succeeding in keeping the people away, not everybody, but enough of a dent that you can just squeak by for the weekend- and you know we're again like Julie said we're not trying to say this is going to be easy, but to the extent that we can reduce that overflow uh will be.

E

You know, that's that's what the all of this planning is about.

C

And I'll just add in closing um in case you don't know our nerdy dot jargon. The VMS signs are those big signs you see with like the orange light writing those can be updated in real time. So what Tommy is saying is like if we're really seeing a major gridlock issue in one area, we can start advertising that around the city um where we're, where we're concerned, so that people can try to avoid those areas.

C

D

Hi, uh my name is Allison Beal and I live adjacent to the East 5th Street exit from the prospect Expressway, so I just wanted to bring up another bit of feedback to maybe help you consider making that dotted line solid instead of the East 5th Street exit um at night, I often see at this exit at least I, don't know three four times a year drivers are sleepy, there's a median between the exit to East, 5th Street and the prospect Expressway drivers get sleepy.

D

uh They try to Swerve lots of things happen. People Joyride down Prospect Expressway all the time at night, um but there's lots of crashes of drivers just sort of like plowing into trees. On that median and I, don't know you know it's just not it's not ideal, just because of how narrow it is and I'm also curious. If your people are going to be out, are you your people are going to be out there like telling people not to honk and things at night or because drivers just get so mad.

D

You know waiting and it's just it's. It's awful.

C

And we will we'll do our best: okay, yeah, okay,.

D

So the noise control, that's only for the BQE neighbors, that's.

C

Not really anybody on the other, the noise control is related to the cement. It's very loud to remove.

D

C

And so there's mitigating things we can do there I can't control someone's Behavior when they decide to honk a horn, but we will do our best. We can, you know, consider putting up VMS signs that say: don't honk.

C

um Okay, we have a crisis of reckless driving in this in Nationwide and it's you know we're so glad her families are safe streets and others to help us pass. 24.

D

C

Speed cameras and you know, there's a number of other ways that we can activate our.

D

Residents, I just don't see that happening, I mean you know: I, don't live on McDonald Avenue, but it's it's just so much wider that if somebody like accidentally swerves they're, not gonna like plow into a median and you know injure themselves or others. You know I've watched cars burn in front of my house house because of of accidents. So we.

C

Can certainly look talk to our partners who are working on the medians there and see if there's anything further, we can do okay. Thank you for raising it.

T

On Caton Avenue and Ocean Parkway there's a construction zone that has been there since the beginning of 2020.. It took me a long time to figure out who is behind it: okay, 2018., so thank you. Robert I'm, a reporter, so I was up to the challenge I found out who was behind it. I thought it was D.O.T, but it's not it's dep, but I was working with DOT to find out who was behind it. The latest email we got.

T

Thank you Victoria in Robert's office was that this was supposed to be finished in January of 2020. Does anyone know what month? It is right now it's September and there's never a soul in there. What is the guarantee that, whatever time frame you give us, it's not going to be 20 times longer.

C

So so I hope that I can give you some good news. I spoke to the Chief of Staff of dep this morning, because I know that this has been there for a long time and has been incredibly frustrating.

C

We walked by it on our way here she told me that final testing of the storm water pump station is happening right now um and that it that's accessed through Ocean Parkway, but she expects that the new station will be operational by the end of this year, which means that by early next year, what's in the road currently would be removed. Before this project moves forward and I I know there are always delays and kovid was certainly a big Challenge and.

T

Please don't blame it. On construction was open in summer of.

C

2020. I agree with you. It's it's been a long time and my I was reassured this morning that this is the current schedule and I will keep checking in with them and relay to you. If there's anything changes, okay, I'd love to get your email at the end, I.

T

I would I will come up to you at the end, but that didn't answer my question. I'm getting to the second part.

E

Of your question, okay, so the second part was: what guarantee do you have that you won't finish and get out.

E

We don't start projects with the intention of obviously delaying and just taking our sweet time. It doesn't change anything for us. It is painful to do it that way. One of the challenges we've had in last few months is there is a supply chain delay certain things that we need to get? We are having a hard time.

E

That said, we don't start work. If we don't have the things lined up when we have a contract, we do line things up so that things do happen. That said, construction does sometimes show up with some surprises.

E

It is an old structure just like, if any of you have done any work on your houses, you think all you're doing is changing the faucet and it's not just the faucet. These things do happen and we try to address them the best we can this case. What we anticipate doing is relatively minor in terms of water construction is we have done many more much more complex construction projects in the city and delivered them successfully.

E

We think this is a not a construction challenge. It is a Traffic Challenge, however, and so that's why a lot of the effort is going into that, but we we know what we have to get done here is is painful, and so a lot of planning and effort is going into that.

C

um And one final note: the contract that we're putting together will require the contractor to do this. In the time that we have asked for those.

T

Three well I'm sure that it was the same over there.

C

T

Just kept getting new, they just kept getting new permits.

C

So we've built in financial penalties into this contract. So if the, if the contractor does not meet those three weekends, they will suffer the consequences. We feel very strongly that this can be done in those three weekends.

T

Well, I hope the penalties are more than 50 cents. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

U

How are you Jerry, Mulvaney I, just have a question: the expressway is going to be open, Can.

C

You Hear the mic a little bit how's that.

U

Perfect, the expressway is going to stay open throughout the project, the prospect Expressway going towards Church Avenue. So how are you going to control traffic or to avoid exit.

C

H

Exit four yeah.

C

U

You exit four, which is 10th 11th Avenue, which leads to McDonald Avenue, how they're going to go naturally to that exit to travel along 27, which is a truck truck lane. How will you stop them? You're, not going to close that exit.

E

Correct so the McDonald Avenue or the Fifth Avenue exit was not intended to be closed, and, and so it will still function the way it functions. If anybody is exiting to go into that neighborhood, they do need to get out and go to that neighborhood. What we were talking about and that's why it's not a detour route for anybody else. Anybody on Prospect continues on goes to either the tunnel or gets out at Atlantic and goes through the the neighborhood up that way.

E

So this is this exit was purely mentioned as hey one way to keep some of the traffic away from coming to downtown. Brooklyn is if they're headed to the airports. Maybe they can take a different route and again, as I mentioned, the.

U

I'm sorry number.

E

Of vehicles that we're talking about in that scenario are the so the number I'm talking about is the addition, because of this change, whatever they normally are, would still take the exits that they take right and again we're talking about just for them.

U

But you're making a point about East Fifth, Street, being a choice.

E

It is a it's: a freight map. I didn't create those Maps. Those Maps exist. I can completely understand the frustration with that map, but that is a state route map as a freight route for this discussion, we're happy to Mark detour to McDonald's. If everything else checks out- and we don't have any other concerns, but it is a map route right now.

U

My other suggestion is that if you to to alleviate some of the traffic on the expressway 10th 11th Avenue, you might want to consider changing 20th Street from 7th Avenue to McDonald to 2A temporarily. It would ease the burden on 19th Street, as well as the expressway temporarily. The other thing is uh it's a loaded question. When you do this work, and it's done, are you going to put the BQE back to three lanes under the Promenade.

C

So the two two-part question here, the first uh regarding the the the street that now has protected bike Lanes. You know to the questions we were talking about earlier. All Road users are critical to us and we want to make sure that we maintain those protected bike lanes that people can travel safely by bike. So we are not currently considering that conversion, because we also need to protect bike riders, understood.

U

But this is a temporary thing. It would be alleviate some of the backlog give.

C

A

Just because 20th Street keeps coming up so much going on to McDonald Avenue I do think um that I we can all see the utility and using a very wide Avenue. That already has trucks that is McDonald, Avenue I will say. If that becomes the major route, it is only fair to especially look at 19th Street, which has gotten a lot of burden of truck traffic and other traffic because of the changes of 20th Street. You know they've been asking for a sign to remind folks that this is not a truck route.

A

We consistently have trucks going down, 19th Street, you know all the way to Seeley Street, sometimes and getting stuck so you know I want to be very clear. We have lots of East 5th Street and Caton Avenue folks, who are being very burdened. If we're going to go the other route. You know we need to talk about some of the issues that are on 19th and 20th Street at McDonald Avenue. We have illegal truck parking there. We have a lot of Burden there as well, so I hope that you know dot is prepared.

A

If we go that alternate route, if you think that's better um that we'll talk about those areas uh and make sure that they're not overly burdened as well, because I think you know this is one one large community.

C

That's a great point and we can take another look at 19th. Street I appreciate that um to your other question about two versus three lanes, so the the plan we've launched for visioning on the BQE is entirely Community Driven. So we haven't made that decision. Yet we're going to be going through three rounds of workshops, I hope that you'll participate in them. um It sounds like you have a special interest in that there's strong opinions on both sides, so we need to hear from the community before we make that decision. Okay,.

U

V

W

Hello there I'm Milos I, live on East, 5th, Street I'm, actually Allison's neighbor uh and you know obviously I live by it and whatever changes and construction gets done. Like disrupts our life, but you know it's something: that's necessary, um but I find that uh uh kind of I'm, not gonna, say crazy. I want to.

C

Use. Thank you.

W

C

So you can lower the mic if.

W

You ah thank you and I hope you guys consider and change your minds to use McDonald uh because East 5th Street, it's actually the narrowest road. It is the only exit that has no traffic clay right. It has just has a stop sign. As Allison mentioned, there is a median over there and that median yeah not just not only do people back up into it to try to go over uh by Green, wolf playground. I've seen people jump that meeting all the time. My other neighbor who I don't think is here.

W

He has bought pots and plans to put in that media and himself personally and his his family uh refills them every single year to prevent cars and trucks. I've seen a 24-foot box truck jump over that right, so I think putting people over there for free weekends will not just impact the trucks that are going over there and people rolling through it.

W

But people are I can tell you what's going to happen because I've seen that happen, you can have a bunch of trucks, probably not not the really long trailers but uh box trucks and people in SUVs jump in that corner.

C

Thank you, I mean, what's really become clear to me. Tonight, is to Tommy's Point like we need to hear from you on the street and it's clear that we need to take a good look at East Fifth and see what's happening there and if what improvements are possible. So thank you.

L

X

Hi uh I'm Steve Cohen I'm, the co-chair of the transportation committee for cb14, um so sorry Anna just wanted to jump in and ask a question that or read something that I thought came up in the in the presentation.

X

um There's there was a lot of stress early on in the presentation about, uh certainly the areas closer to the BQE and you know: drastic changes regarding traffic patterns and traffic agents and that sort of thing, and then you got to our area and one of the points you made was it there really aren't going to be that many additional trucks, uh so I guess I just wanted to clarify, is Kaden and Lyndon and either East, Fifth or McDonald. Are they going to get um like or the traffic lights going to be timed differently?

X

During these times, are there going to be traffic agents deployed? Or is it just? You know just saying: oh there's just a few extra trucks, so you know we'll we'll keep it, as is like a normal weekend. Thank you.

E

uh Actually, no, we specifically noted that there will be ta agents here, because we understand that already there is too much traffic and it wouldn't make it through, even if there's just a few added. So yes, there will be specifically T agents assigned to this area. Depending on how we end up finalizing the route they will shift around to match.

C

All the same mitigations will be applied throughout, so we were talking about the VMS signs earlier as well signal timing. So absolutely hello again, hello again,.

F

Hello again, my name is Ann gaudette I'm, the president of the Caton Park homeowners association. So, regarding the two commercial routes that run through this part of community board 14., unhappily they both bookend our micro neighborhood, which goes from Church Avenue to Caton. So we've had one one person here who spoke about the dollar. Vans we've had the discussions about routing of trucks, not the sizes necessarily so I'd like to ask for your assistance with staggering which, um like how large these trucks are, that can come through because is it interest state?

F

Does one of them does larger routing through right? So and then others do more delivery. So I would beseech you to consider allowing the smaller trucks up to to find their way to route I-27 and then back to the southern state. So, and also since there are buses that do innervate along both of those corridors.

F

If we could stagger staggered not just as Steve was saying not just the the mechanics of the traffic flow but what's allowed to flow there, that would be really helpful. So, to get a little specific, we live the third third house in from church Avenue, and it took my husband at uh about eight o'clock in the morning, not too long ago. 40 minutes to go three doors so just to give you an idea. What we live with Brenda very eloquently mentioned their experiences on Cayton, which I'm happy to corroborate.

F

So we're already burdened and I know that this is you know: I I can see the map. You know, I I, see the map and I I get that there's not a lot of routing through there, but if you can find a way to stagger to accommodate not further over burdening us, it would be really really appreciated. So, thank you so much.

F

V

Good evening hello, my name is Jack. O'connell I've lived in the neighborhood for 45 years, I started the Windsor Terrace Food Co-op.

V

First, let me thank Bobby, shahana and Rita for pulling this together. You know I. It's.

V

It's 8 20., coming up on two hours and I'm stunned, I'm stunned. That three words haven't been mentioned. Three, can you guess what those three words are? hmm Oh no Google and Waze Google and Waze.

C

She said that she called them gizmos, you didn't.

V

Name, the specific company- yes,.

V

All these Maps become irrelevant when you have a Google map in your truck or your car. Do you know what's happening right now? Google gets trucks and cars by the hundreds off of 10th and 11th Avenue from Prospect. And what do they do? They don't go down to another Avenue they don't they go straight down to Seeley Street, which is a two-way street, with parking on both sides of the street, and they make a left turn on silly Street to get to Prospect Park Southwest.

V

Do you think that Google and ways care about a map? No, they care about getting their transporters into places where there are no stop signs where there are no stopping people from driving. Very oh. We have a speed bump yeah. You ought to live near the speed bump and see what that does.

V

What I'm saying is that unless you have some sort of enforcement to stop people from getting off at 10th and 11th Avenue they're going to get off there, because Google and Waze are going to say, there's too many people getting off on East 5th Street. So we want you to get off at 10th and 11th and make a left turn on to Sealy.

V

Unless you have some communication on these nights with Google and waves, the entire neighborhoods that we're talking about are going to be flooded with commercial traffic and extra cars.

V

I live here: it's not a joke, Google and Waze. Those are the three words I want you to take home. Thank you.

E

um So I think we mentioned that we would be specifically reaching out to ways and others and letting them know that these are the detour roads, that they should not be sending traffic elsewhere, but we do need to keep in mind. People are familiar with neighborhoods. Some people are don't even need Google to get around because they've lived around here long enough. They know their ways, so we're not going to be able to prevent that. What we can do is keep enforcing that the map detour is this.

E

This is the best way to get through if you must be in this area, much better. If you just don't come to this area again, we can't control individual behaviors, but we'll certainly work with Google and vazi, which I did mention earlier, that that would be the the detail maps that we would tell them to follow.

C

And I was just looking it up in my phone. I actually have a meeting with Google later this month and I personally promise you that I will raise it to them directly myself.

Y

Good evening, everyone I'm Leslie Gale I'm, a resident of Keaton and 18., and um the gentleman cited my concern earlier regarding regulation of the traffic lights, no, a new traffic light was in um installed at 17 at Cape and 17 to direct the traffic from Church Avenue to flow properly onto Caton Avenue in either directions.

Y

Now that makes it three stop lights right there, the traffic coming this way and Caton from Saint Paul. When that light changes the truck drivers by my observation, my wives and other neighbors, the light at 17 is unread facing the traffic over at parade place. It said green for those who are coming out of 17 to continue down and Caden and continued past pirate place in this direction. Now the Saint Paul truck drivers and others who have just moved off from the green light are totally disobeying and disregarding the red light at 17 and Catan.

Y

That is saying, hey stop! This light is for isn't the green light that you're looking at ahead at parade place is not, for you is for the flowing of the traffic coming from church on 17 to make that left turn and Catan. So, going back to his point that you reference, can Dot and traffic regulate those lights to ensure that they flow together so, for example, Ocean Avenue, Saint, Paul and 17, and one circuit I, don't know if that is possible.

Y

So it's all green for the heavy Footers and the truck drivers and others so as to prevent any accident. We agree. We greatly appreciate the fact that this construction and the rerouting of traffic will be on the weekend. That does not minimize the activities that are taking place at the playground and the parks. The little leagues the children are there on the weekend playing various Sports, their parents are dropping them off those cars.

Y

Add to that traffic and the the the the sound 25 miles per hour is very slow yeah for trucks, but just the beer sight of the trucks and their size is overwhelming already, and to notice that there are additional traffic with cars and parents and observing that they are disobeying that light at 17 and and and Catan.

Y

Can you please discuss and look back at the drawing board with um with traffic and see if that regulation of those lights can be on one circuit so as to let the flow of the traffic move rather than because for the truck to move off in second gear, he has to develop a certain amount of speed and he already decides he's not stopping at that light, because the green light at Pirates said go and he's fearing that hey. This is a waste of break and energy and gas I'm not going to stop.

Y

So this is our concern. So can you please also address that in your reviewing of the traffic lights along with that weekend traffic. Thank you. Thank.

C

You sorry I've, taken I've, taken pretty extensive notes, based on what you just said and I will relay it to our Deputy Commissioner who works on signals. Thank you.

K

Sorry this is a little bit of a pedantic question, um but I'm looking at the truck routes on Dot's page and it looks like Prospect Expressway- is one but East. Fifth isn't and I think that that's part of why people are very confused about the level of truck traffic that goes down East Fifth and it's something that I am also very confused about when I bike in that area, because it's very dangerous when you have large truck traffic there and I guess just like.

K

If that is a somehow a state only thing can we get that written onto the Dot Page so that people can see it like I? Think people expect there to be. You know expected probably when they were like picking where to live and so forth that this was a safer place and it just would be easier to have the data in more places. Sorry yeah.

E

That's that's something I wish uh Denise was here to explain better on how they do that mapping, but it seems like the freight route is only focused towards the local streets and it doesn't account for where it connects into a state route. So for some reason none of the state routes show up on that Freight map, even though they are State, Freight maps and I don't quite get what the disconnect is, but it's something because and discuss yeah it's a.

A

A

Trucks are directed to get off at 10th and then go down McDonald's.

C

E

C

E

Yeah I mean so that that's part of the route 27, which is why it's an automatic Freight route. It's not identified separately as a freight route, because it's part of route 27.

A

Lived in this neighborhood, my entire life I've never heard that, but.

C

I'm sorry I can't hear you I'm sorry I can't hear you I would love to hear what you're saying, but if you could come to the mic, there's.

J

A sign that says trucks cannot exit. That's that's what she said: yeah on East, Fifth,.

C

Right, yes, okay, we'll have to take a look I'm, really sorry that our freight expert is not here tonight, because she had a family emergency I'm happy to connect her to any of you via email. If I have my card here, I would love to make that connection. I'm! Sorry, I, don't have that answer tonight.

J

So I I have a question because I've been you know. Listening to everybody speak about Caton Avenue and this is a one-way come.

C

A little Come, a Little Closer this.

J

Is a one-way detour, correct and I've been hearing a lot about the Caton Avenue piece. Can't you make Caton Avenue One Way during this detour, make it one way, move the B16 which barely ever shows up just move it um and make it one way. I'm sorry make what one way make Caton Avenue one way and actually make it permanently. One way.

E

I can't speak to the permanent work. That is not part of my expertise, so I won't even opinion on it, but that's something we can share with the traffic folks and the street planning folks, specifically for this weekend, whether we can turn one way we can look into it. We have to take into account, of course, what else is going on there.

E

Yeah again, I'll send that on to the folks who do deal with Street Network I'm, a bridge person, so I can't speak to that with any depth, so I'll pass it on and and follow up.

C

I'm, a big Note Taker, so I promise I've written down everything that's been said today and we'll pass it on to my colleagues for consideration.

Z

C

Good afternoon or.

Z

Evening, everyone um I did want to follow up with one other question on all these closures, so there was a lot of mention of the parts of the BQE that are going to be closed, as well as the streets that are on the screen right now, however, all roads feed into each other and feed out of each other. With that in mind, are there going to be any anticipated traffic changes, delays um other ways that the traffic patterns will be affected by these closures that have not been mentioned in this presentation so far,.

C

As I I've said throughout I will I will say it again and then I'll turn it to tanvi for greater details. Our number one recommendation for these weekends is to get people off the roads to encourage people to not drive to these areas. Obviously, to your point, every closure has a ripple effect and- and we don't want to see gridlock right, so our our number one goal here is to get people off the roads and not driving.

E

When we did the modeling for this, we had a very extensive model. Obviously we couldn't model every single street corner or every single intersection, but we have a very extensive model that connects into Queens Brooklyn and Staten Island, and the way we laid out the detours and we identified where certain changes need to be made is by looking at that ripple effect and and getting to a point of like okay, again, not saying everything will be just like. It is all the time it certainly will have certain impacts.

E

But we looked at that and that's how we came up so we started off with you know. What's the least closure, we do okay, now where's the impacts, let's go to those intersections. What do we need to do to make this area continue to move and on and on and on, and that's why it took us well over a year to really map out how to do this, um and and so a lot of effort went into it. But again, like Julie said: please stay off the road for the weekend.

E

If, at all possible, there will be some impacts, we'll try and advertise the delays as quickly and as early as we can so, hopefully, people use detours.

E

AA

When the traffic comes off of at Exit four and they they go to 19th Street and there's already a sign that says no trucks, they go right through that sign trucks, and then they hit Seeley Street, like Jack, said earlier, and they take that left, there's another sign at Sealy, Street and Vanderbilt to 18th Street. That says no trucks they go through that sign and then they get caught on Sealy Street with the ambulances and the fire trucks.

AA

One of the worst offenders I find in the neighborhood on Seeley. Street are the sanitation trucks that on an evening about now Thursday Friday night, they travel at excessive rates of speed and they hit the two speed bumps on Seeley Street, and then they proceed down to Prospect Park Southwest.

AA

If this work is to be done on McDonald, all the side streets need to be addressed as preparation with crosswalks stop signs stop light.

AA

The studies that include the traffic patterns for McDonald need to also include the traffic patterns and the right signage along the side streets.

AA

Thank you. Thank.

C

You so that I can follow up correctly. Can I ask you a clarifying question when you say I just wanted to ask a clarifying question, so I can follow up correctly when you say sanitation, trucks. Do you mean Department of Sanitation or sanitation, okay, so okay, so private Carters as well?

C

Okay, so I will certainly follow up with our colleagues in dsny to make sure that they're thinking, through these weekends and and in general, not hitting your speed bumps so fast I can't make any promises, but I'm I'm happy to talk to them about it, um and you know I think it's also been made clear tonight. We've talked about a few times that there really needs to be greater enforcement in a number of areas, and so we'll we'll keep working on it and.

AA

It's not one truck it'll be three in a row.

C

Yeah I hear you.

AA

I, don't know where they're going.

C

Don't know either because I I don't.

AA

I don't know if this is Depot I.

C

Think it's one of the coolest agencies in the city. I know we have some sanitation fans here, but um I I will find out for you. There's.

AA

Also, tour buses that go to Prospect Park any event in Prospect Park includes the large tour buses.

C

Where, where are you seeing them go through the.

AA

The car carriers in every manner of truck and I I've started I've, been in the middle of the road and I get at the intersection of 18th Street and Seeley and I tell them to direct them, to I point to the sign that says no trucks and they blow Blobby off and they go I have a delivery on this street and there's no construction.

AA

It's there's! No enforcement. There's no crosswalks! There's no stop signs, there's no, there's nothing! That'll slow them down on Sealy Street, except maybe a a mother or father with a baby carriage, because now there's all these schools. Bishop Ford is now with Elementary School and they they cross down to 130..

AA

A lot of young families are moving in there's, there's no crosswalks over the Prospect Park Prospect uh Avenue, Bridge they're supposed to be, and.

C

Prospect Avenue Bridge Prospect.

AA

Avenue Bridge, which is in need of repair and I'm sure, there's weight limits on that bridge because of the vibrations that run through that bridge and there's nothing to keep the trucks off of Sealy Street to Prospect Park Southwest.

T

C

Appreciate the productive meeting tonight we really have heard loud and clear what your priorities are: I have my cards I'm happy to give them to anyone, who'd like to be in communication. We also have these question cards we mentioned. If you have further questions you want to pass along to us, I'll stick around for a little while afterwards. If anyone wants to talk, um Tommy I, don't know. If you have any closing remarks. We've been here a while so I think we've said everything to say, but.

A

You know first I want to I want to thank everyone who came out tonight to participate and thank uh council member hanif and council member Joseph for helping set this up in D.O.T coming out. I would like to just say a few things that I learned uh from this I think exit four and exit 5 are linked. So no matter what happens, you've got to have enforcement. You have to have officers and traffic agents there around the clock, with whatever detour is going on.

A

I also learned, um you know, I would take a second look at your traffic modeling um I'm no traffic engineer, but my guess is if anybody here, who's ever gone to JFK or gone to Rockaway or Long Beach, no one in a private car is ever going to go down. Caton Avenue down Linden Boulevard to get to those they're either going to go down.

A

Ocean Parkway or they're actually going to go the opposite way and go West on the prospect, Expressway and then get on the BQE and take the belt, and the reason I mentioned that is I really do fear that you're modeling is really about trucks and box traffic because there's no way Google or Waze, or anyone if you're actually trying to get to JFK or Rock away or Long, Beach or somewhere on the southern state that you would want to go down even because you're not going north. You would never go to the triple cantilever.

A

You would go a different way, so I really do fear what you're modeling, for the only reason why a passenger car coming from any of those points would want to get on to Exit, 4 or exit 5 and go towards Linden. Boulevard is maybe if they were going uh to Shea, Stadium or LaGuardia, and because they couldn't go north on the triple cantilever. So I would really ask you to look at those modelings and say what what cards do we actually think are going to go here and I was talking to council member hanif.

A

While you were presenting and I really do, fear that you're modeling is very rose-colored uh with 1100 cars and I would really love for you to when you look at that modeling to take a worst case scenario and say, what's going to happen, because I think you've heard that maybe we could do some mitigation on East 5th Street on 20th and 19th Street McDonald Avenue. But anybody who lives adjacent to Caton Avenue knows that Caton Avenue does not move during the day at any point. So the idea that it can take more capacity is false.

A

Now, I think people understand that we need to fix, fix this highway, but I think we have to look at points all around the borough to make sure that all of us are bearing some of this burden and I think that you've put a a specific burden on the communities of Windsor, Terrace, Kensington and Prospect. Park South and I'd really hope that you'd look and keep engaging with these folks. As you can see, there are a ton of ton of problems, but thank you for the presentation. I want to offer my my colleagues any sure.

A

C

I just want to make sure it's perfectly clear. You know: tanvi walked through a number of detours for this project and third and fourth Avenue are the primary detours for most Vehicles. This is sorry and I just went to finish my point. um This is specifically a detour for trucks who are going to this truck route right so that you are correct that this is not about passenger vehicles.

E

No, no, no, no, the count is correct. I gave you both numbers.

C

The Thousand I believe is referencing all vehicles that generally right.

E

So the the numbers we said was a thousand was all vehicles that could potentially end up out, of which the subset of trucks was a smaller number of of I forget whatever it was right.

E

We have several categories, I'll be happy to share with the whole breakdown. If you like, that's not a problem and again to your point, what you were saying earlier, which was why would anybody come this way if they were headed to LaGuardia? That's the reason why this count is lower, because we don't expect a ton of people to come here if they're headed that way, the few who end up there and then go now what or Prospect is backed up I don't want to go there or whatever.

E

We need to account for that, and we need to plan for that. We're not telling people to take this route, but we need to account for somebody who ends up there and we anticipate some of them are going to end up here. That's what the modeling is telling us.

C

So there are multiple detours and there is a. There is an element to personal choice, right someone might say: I hate driving on Third Avenue, because there's a lot of um sanitation trucks there I would prefer to be on the prospect that that is a personal choice. Someone will make and that's what these numbers reflect.

C

We have extensive modeling data that we pull from national federal databases as weathers as well as state and Regional planning, so I can I can assure you that our modeling is very good um and, and again we really- we heard everyone tonight I think very clearly what your preferences are and and really take them to heart. All.

F

B

Thank you so much. This was very productive. I also learned a lot and I have questions which I'll follow up about.

B

um Could you share uh the timeline in which you'll respond to the questions that weren't answered or for folks who will reach out separately um just a timeline on how the questions that were raised and then the feedback raised? How will they and when will they get integrated.

C

At least so, I think we need to go back and and have a better understanding here of uh what every all of our units believe is the right choice here, but I think we've heard very loud and clear what the preference is. I, I, don't know if you want to give a specific timeline.

E

Yeah it's hard to give a specific timeline, because obviously some things need a little more analysis. Other things are a little more straightforward, so we'll probably have to break out the list of questions and say: okay, these were either like she's we're talking about whether we're coordinating with PD or or sanitation department. Those we can get back to you sooner rather than later, and let you know what we've done with them.

E

Other things like looking at this adjoining streets and what else would we need if we decide to go with McDonald's, that's going to take a little bit of time, uh but obviously well in advance of the work actually happening. So this would be over next few weeks that we will review and we'll continue to get feedback. We have many more meetings like this coming up, so we'll keep absorbing and then at you know, before the work happens, we will release sort of like here's.

E

The update, here's where we're getting is there something that we need to go back and forth? Obviously we'll reach out and.

C

Tommy I think you said our contractor would be chosen by January right. So we'll have a final plan in in over the winter correct, and anyone who sends who sends me an email I always respond very quickly.

G

Thank you so much for tonight. This is very informative. I also learned a lot. um You talked a lot about enforcement and a lot of my constituents um talked about that as well um and among the three of us sitting here we share multiple precincts. We wanted to know how was it, how was that engagement going to happen with the precincts in terms of Engagement.

C

Our Borough commissioner Keith Bray is here you want to talk about it. I'll give the mic to the man yeah.

AB

Thanks so I I've spoken, we'll be speaking to um the CEOs and exos or all the precincts, but actually before tonight, I actually spoke to Broken Barrel, South command, so I'm, actually speaking with them about this, and so that that's going to coordinate all the presets. So that's why that will avoid the Precinct Line problem that December was talking about before.

H

C

Any other final questions or comments, I, really appreciate you all coming out tonight. I know it's late and it really does help us do our work better. As I said, we work for you. So I really appreciate you taking the time to be here tonight.