Lowering of main span
Sept. 11, 2017 By Nathaly Pesantez
Two sections of the Old Kosciuszko Bridge will be demolished in a controlled explosion toward the end of September.
The Queens and Brooklyn approaches of the old bridge are scheduled to be detonated in the morning of Sept. 24, according to Capt. Peter Rose of the 94th Precinct, who made the announcement a Sept. 6 community council meeting.
A DOT spokesperson said plans for this event are“not yet finalized”, but a controlled detonation will likely take place sometime after 12am and before 9am, when traffic is the lightest and will be least affected, according to an official with knowledge of the project who is unauthorized to speak on it.
A variety of factors can change the time and date of the event, including the company tasked with the job and weather conditions, according to the unauthorized official.
Although plans for the detonation take traffic into consideration, the demolition will still have an effect on surrounding roads and streets.
“It’s going to effect traffic in probably a negative way for an extended period of time,” Capt. Peter Rose said at the meeting.
Residents were advised to take local, alternative routes to avoid the tangle by and on the bridge.
Notices detailing traffic conditions and closures are typically released by the DOT in the days before an event takes place, which can be found on the DOT/Kosciuszko Bridge page.
The main span of the old Kosciuszko Bridge, which many thought was supposed to leave with a bang, was quietly lowered onto a barge and floated away mid July.
The ongoing work on the bridge is part of an $873 million investment that will bring two new state-of-the-art spans to the Brooklyn-Queens connector. The project, currently in phase 1, focuses on a Queens-bound span and on doing away with the old bridge, with work during the month of August focusing largely on preparation for the removal of the approaches on the old bridge, according to community notices. Phase 2 will see construction of the Brooklyn-bound span, which is expected to be completed in 2020.
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