Ideas for Burying the Gowanus Expressway Continue
January 10th, 2008

The idea of burying the Gowanus Expressway has again burst onto the scene, this year being sparked by the Brooklyn chapter of the American Institute of Architects. The group released renderings to the Daily News showing an expansive park residing where a highway once rested, with a new bridge in the harbor off in the distance that would replace the Gowanus. Shortly thereafter, Curbed posted images by dLand Studio, who had also been working on a study burying a portion of the highway.
Burying the expressway - an elevated highway along the Eastern edge of Brooklyn - has been discussed (or fought over) for more than a decade. The talk of burying it has reoccurred almost yearly since at least 1993, when the state began plans to shut down the highway for much needed repair, redirect traffic through the surrounding neighborhoods for a decade, then reopen it. In 1994 Transportation Alternatives issued the first report calling for the expressway to be buried. The Regional Plan Association published another in 1996.
In 1999 a community group successfully sued the State Department of Transportation and the Federal Highway Administration, resulting in the inclusion of a tunnel alternative into the planning process. The Department of Transportation identified a location for the tunnel in conjunction with the community in 2006, and then began work on an Enhanced Environmental Impact Study, the draft of which is due in 2009.
Recently, the Bloomberg Administration raised the idea of decking over part of the Gowanus for housing in PlaNYC.
By Mike Muller on January 10, 2008, 12:42 pmIn category: Transportation
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