Kosciuszko Bridge on Budget and On Time

The $554.7 million construction of the Kosciuszko Bridge will consist of six lanes, which will carry the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway over Newtown Creek.  Upon completion of the first span of the project, 160,000 vehicles per day bound for both Brooklyn and Queens will be transferred onto it, with three lanes going in each direction.  The project is currently in its second year and is estimated to be completed by early 2017.

The second span of the project is slated to break ground on construction of the Brooklyn-bound side in early 2018.  Once that bridge is complete, the Queens-bound structure will feature five travel lanes.

The new construction will improve many aspects of the originally opened 1939 design.  The new bridge will be 30 feet shorter than the original and will help increase traffic flow and congestion issues caused by the rather steep gradient of the current bridge.  Community Board 5 Chairman Vincent Arcuri Jr. explains that the bridge “…has a gradient that was so extremely high because it was built to allow vessels to go underneath it,” he said. “It slows truck traffic in both directions to a crawl because of the incline. Now, they’re not going to be slowed down by it.”

The project was awarded to a team of four construction firms (Skanska, Ecco III, Kiewit and HNTB) and is the largest construction project ever awarded by the state DOT.

Congrats to Paul Crotty of Ventura Consulting Group for his work facilitating this project which is currently on schedule and on budget!

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