Could the Gowanus Expressway Become a Greenway?
Here’s one for the awesome-ideas-that’ll-probably-never-happen file: The American Institute of Architects has drafted a design for replacing the Gowanus Expressway with a greenway on 3rd Avenue and putting a cable-suspension roadway on 1st Avenue, according to an article in yesterday’s Daily News. “The Gowanus Expressway is an aesthetic blight to the communities it straddles,” said…
Here’s one for the awesome-ideas-that’ll-probably-never-happen file: The American Institute of Architects has drafted a design for replacing the Gowanus Expressway with a greenway on 3rd Avenue and putting a cable-suspension roadway on 1st Avenue, according to an article in yesterday’s Daily News. “The Gowanus Expressway is an aesthetic blight to the communities it straddles,” said architect Glen Cutrona, who spearheaded the design project. “When it was constructed, it fractured the community. And while we’re aware that Third Ave. needs to be a vehicular corridor, it also lends itself to greening.” A plan to replace the expressway with a tunnel has been studied for more than 20 years but has so far come to nothing.
Make Gowanus Go Away [NY Daily News]
Expressway photo by gkjarvis; rendering from the Daily News.
Hey 1:38 –
The grandchildren of those in Brooklyn and Queens would have been the ones choking on truck fumes because the proposed tunnel would have taken all of the trucks off of the roads of NJ and relocated them here. Who in their right mind, who isn’t getting campaign contributions from railroaders would want that? The Greenpoint-Williamsburg communities were as opposed to the plan as the Queens communities were. What you’re saying is that Bloomberg should not have listened to his outer borough constituents and only to Manhattanites who would have been the only ones to benefit from this tunnel. Even Crains and the NY Building Congress thought the Cross Harbor tunnel was a bad idea.
Even if the city found the time money and resources to complete a project like this…. you bet some nutty groups will sue to stop it because Jose tire repair might have to close and they cant to see that.
http://spaceroach.tumblr.com/
This rendering of a project which will never be built will be worthless once AY is built.
Hire the Boston Big Dig guys! Over budget, over deadline, poorly constructed, and lots of payola to go around.
The tunnel is actually the more economic of the proposals given the entire life cycle expense and the real estate value of the surface space created. That said, its a big capital expense, that said, nothing a little toll on that road couldn’t pay for.
Then you get to the “when pigs fly” stuff. You see the storm created by the congestion pricing proposal, watch all the white people in Staten Island scream if the Gowanus were to toll. In fact, the cross harbor freight tunnel is easily affordable with increased truck tolls. Then you get into some real dangerous people, Jersey truck companies. You can’t slit the tires of a railroad train.
I for one would like to see the details on the on- and off-ramps on this GOWANUS FLY-OVER. Or was the plan to have a two-mile suspension bridge over the Sunset Park community that would provide easy driving to everyone but the locals! Don’t see a problem here?
How about replacing the affordable homes of the 5,000 residents who were ripped from the neighborhood by Mr. Moses to make way for the Expressway? Should be easy: the City owns the land! Think about it. Families before trees! Beds before bikes!
Tom Murphy
2:09 Euro Smart cars will flood the streets soon and relieve you of those FUV’s. Park em any way you want, they are as long as they are wide. Seats 2 and a gazillion MPG. Reminds me of Ford Pintos though. I would not want to be on the receiving end of a head on in one of those.
2:09 – Oh but problems on the gowanus will be solved very soon. Same with the BQE, Van Wyck, and LIE. Its called $8.00/gallon gas and its coming your way real soon. Just like the rest of the world pays. Cant wait for all the FUV’s to be gone and never having to see a car with one person in it again.
They just haven’t gotten that far southwest yet. Or maybe they have based on this.