B'klym-Qns. Depressway

Highway fix worse than L-train closure: commish

If commuters are dreading the L-pocalypse, just wait for the BQE-pocalypse.

City Transportation Commissioner Polly Trottenberg said Wednesday that she and New York City Transit chief Andy Byford had previously viewed the L-train shutdown, for repairs scheduled to begin in April 2019, as the biggest challenge of their careers.

But “I actually have a bigger challenge in my career — the BQE, which turns out makes the L train look like a piece of cake,” Trottenberg said in a speech to the Crain’s New York Business forum at the New York Athletic Club.

Trottenberg added that the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway “is, I think, one of the epic infrastructure challenges not only for the city, but arguably for the United States.”

Under a current multibilliondollar city plan to fix a 1 ½-mile stretch of the roadway, the Brooklyn Heights Promenade (above) could be closed for six years.

Transportation officials revealed in September that they want to place a temporary six-lane roadway an top of the popular promenade, where traffic would be diverted while the thoroughfare is being reconstructed.

“The challenge we face is that there is not an easy solution to a highway that carries 153,000 vehicles a day. It’s one of the busiest roads in the city and in the state, and if we don’t find some way to repair that infrastructure, the challenge is what will happen to all those vehicles,” Trottenberg said.

As for the looming 15-month shutdown of the L train between Brooklyn and Manhattan, Trottenberg admitted that there are “a lot of things that can go wrong.”

“My fear is a natural one, which is, I predict, the first couple of weeks are going to be tough — it’s going to be a big adjustment for folks,” Trottenberg said. “My hope is when the moment comes, we will be as prepared as we can be.”

She added, “There are going to be some big changes on the streets and in the subway system for a year and a half — it’s going to be a big challenge . . . It’s going to take some collective will on all our parts to muscle through.”

During the L-train closure, Trottenberg advises that the best way to get between Williamsburg and Manhattan will be on two wheels.

“If you’re hale and hearty, I would like to say probably the fastest way to travel is going to be by bike,” she said.