A year after Mayor Eric Adams’ administration missed out on a big pool of federal infrastructure money, city officials said Wednesday that they have scored more than $100 million in grants from the same federal program that will advance two projects in Queens and Brooklyn.
The city will receive $123.6 million through the latest allocation from the Reconnecting Communities Program, a product of the 2021 Bipartisan Infrastructure Law that essentially seeks to right wrongs from past transportation infrastructure decisions that have unduly burdened some communities.
The vast majority of the new award will go toward the QueensWay, a long-planned project that aims to construct a seven-mile, High Line-style park atop a defunct Long Island Rail Road track in central Queens. The $117 million grant from the U.S. Transportation Department will help fund a 1.3-mile stretch of the greenway into Forest Park, according to the Adams administration, although no construction timeline was announced. (The administration has already advanced $35 million to design an initial phase of QueensWay, near Forest Hills.)
Not everyone agrees about how the rail line should be repurposed. Some residents have gotten behind a rival project, known as QueensLink, which would revive the tracks as a subway line, which they say would be crucial for an otherwise transit-starved section of the borough.
In an awkward coincidence of timing, the state Senate’s proposed budget released this week recommended spending $10 million for an environmental review of the QueensLink rail line, which may conflict with the Adams administration’s apparent intent of pushing ahead with the park project. (Supporters of QueensLink say building the rail line would not preclude adding a park as well, while the Adams administration previously said it has not ruled out the transit component.)
The QueensWay park is being backed by the nonprofit Trust for Public Land. Some Queens politicians, on the other hand, have voiced support for the rival rail line project, including Borough President Donovan Richards and several state lawmakers.
The Adams administration called the $117 million in funding the biggest competitive infrastructure grant won during his mayoralty thus far.
Meanwhile, the additional $5.6 million grant announced this week will fund planning work for potential design changes to the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway. The much-derided highway is crumbling and in need of a rebuild, but the Adams administration’s proposed changes have been derided by community groups as too car- and truck-centric.
The relatively modest federal funding would cover studies of the feasibility of different proposals for improving the BQE, including putting a roof on top of the highway and improving safety on surrounding streets.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer touted the “massive infusion of federal funds” in a statement. The mayor said his administration had “aggressively pursued these Reconnecting Communities grants, to reshape our city in a way that unites us.”
“The next phase of the QueensWay will add more greenway miles, vibrant parks, and outdoor amenities to neighborhoods across Queens, and the BQE Corridor grant we won moves us closer to undoing some of the damage that Robert Moses caused and invests in beautiful, interconnected new public spaces,” Adams said in a statement.
Last year, the city came up empty when the Biden administration doled out an initial round of funding from the Reconnecting Communities program. The city unsuccessfully applied for grants to cover streetscape improvements at Brooklyn’s Broadway Junction transit hub and safety measures along dangerous intersections in East Harlem and East New York.
Caroline Spivack contributed reporting.
Nick Garber , 2024-03-13 17:53:21
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