New Jersey The New Jersey portion of freeway was planned in 1955 as the Union Freeway and designated as I-278 in 1958. It was to connect the Goethals Bridge west to
I-78 at the tripoint of
Springfield,
Union Township, and
Millburn. The western part of this planned freeway faced strong opposition. thereby making the project further disliked. By 1967, state officials decided not to pursue the continuation of I-278 and used the funds for I-278 to build
I-195 across
Central Jersey instead. The only section of I-278 in New Jersey was built between US 1/9 in Linden and the Goethals Bridge, opening to traffic in 1969 at a cost of $11.5 million (equivalent to $ in ). The Union Freeway Extension was revived in the late 1960s and was to start at US 1/9 but end at
I-287 in
Hanover Township, following
Route 24 between I-78 and I-287. However, the
Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) rejected the proposal in 1970, thus ending the I-278 project. The original four-lane Goethals Bridge, which predated the I-278 designation, was replaced with two new three-lane
cable-stayed bridges, each carrying traffic in one direction. The new eastbound bridge opened to both directions of traffic in June 2017, and westbound traffic was shifted to the new westbound bridge in May 2018.
Staten Island Expressway The SIE was first planned in 1941 as the Cross-Richmond Express Highway, a freeway connecting the Goethals and Verrazzano–Narrows bridges that was a part of a comprehensive system of freeways and parkways for the borough of Staten Island. In 1945,
Robert Moses took over planning for the freeway and called it the
Clove Lakes Expressway. The plan received approval in stages through the mid-1950s, and construction on the expressway began in 1959. By this time, the SIE had received the I-278 designation. Originally, Moses intended for a spur of the expressway, the
Richmond Parkway, to follow the central ridge of the island, connecting with the
Outerbridge Crossing in the southwestern part of the island. However, there was massive local opposition to this spur, and, unlike previous projects by Moses, the northern half of the spur was canceled when Mayor
John Lindsay took office in 1966. The southern half of this proposed spur was built, however. In 1998, bus lanes were created on the eastern part of the SIE near the Verrazzano–Narrows Bridge; they were extended west to Todt Hill Road/Slosson Avenue in 2005. In 2008, the bus lanes were opened to high-occupancy vehicles during rush hours. Construction started in November 2010, with the project then expected to cost $75 million (equivalent to $ in ). A new exit 15, which served
Lily Pond Avenue and Bay Street on the eastern end of Staten Island, opened to traffic on July 9, 2012, replacing a former exit further to the east. Signage was also changed to display Fingerboard Road and Lily Pond Avenue as the outlet for the new exit, rather than Lily Pond Avenue and Bay Street. On January 17, 2013, westbound exit 13 was permanently closed in favor of a new interchange setup, which involved two new ramps: exit 13B for Richmond Road and Targee Street and exit 13A for Clove Road.
Gowanus Expressway |alt=An elevated four lane freeway in an urban area as it appeared in 1954 The Gowanus Expressway was initially the Gowanus Parkway, first planned in the 1930s. Construction of the road, overseen by Robert Moses, started in 1939, with the
parkway being built on top of the
BMT Third Avenue Line. The parkway was completed in 1941 and became part of the Belt Parkway that received the
NY 27A designation. The Gowanus Parkway was to be reconstructed into the Gowanus Expressway in the 1950s to connect the Verrazzano–Narrows Bridge to the Brooklyn–Battery Tunnel. The first segment of the Gowanus Expressway, from the Brooklyn–Battery Tunnel to the Prospect Expressway (
NY 27), was opened in May 1950. The freeway was initially planned to be twelve lanes, with two three-lane roadways in each direction, but it was ultimately reduced to a six-lane highway to reduce disruption to the
Bay Ridge neighborhood. By 2000, an HOV lane was added to the eastbound Gowanus Expressway to serve traffic heading toward Manhattan. In 1998, a $16-million (equivalent to $ in ) feasibility study for a tunnel for the Gowanus Expressway was awarded. NYSDOT was considering putting the road in a tunnel, but, in November 2011, the FHWA canceled the project. The viaduct's vertical steel supports show material missing due to rust, but the federal government has stated that it is not in danger of collapse. In 2019, the
New York City Department of Transportation (NYCDOT) took over maintenance of the Gowanus Expressway from the
New York State Department of Transportation (NYSDOT). The brief portion of I-278 on the Grand Central Parkway, connecting the BQE and the Robert F. Kennedy Bridge, had opened in the 1930s. A part of the Brooklyn–Queens Connecting Highway, namely the
Kosciuszko Bridge and the viaducts leading to the bridge, opened in 1939 between Meeker Avenue/Morgan Avenue and
Queens Boulevard (NY 25). In 1940, Moses proposed an expressway between Queens and Brooklyn to relieve local streets of congestion from the Manhattan and Williamsburg bridges. The section between the Kosciuszko and Williamsburg bridges opened on May 25, 1950. A further extension between the Brooklyn–Battery Tunnel and the Brooklyn Bridge, which included the
Brooklyn Heights Promenade, was opened on June 23, 1954, connecting to the Gowanus Expressway. This was followed by a mile-long () section between the Williamsburg Bridge and
Flushing Avenue on September 1, 1958. Two sections of the expressway opened on August 26, 1959: a segment between the Brooklyn Bridge and Tillary Street in Brooklyn and between the Grand Central Parkway and
Roosevelt Avenue in Queens. The expressway between Tillary Street and
Flushing Avenue, around the
Brooklyn Navy Yard, was opened shortly thereafter on January 6, 1960. The road in its entirety was completed on December 23, 1964 at a cost of $137 million (equivalent to $ in ), with the opening of a mile-long () underpass connecting Queens Boulevard with Roosevelt Avenue. The major interchange with the Long Island Expressway was rebuilt in 1966 for $32.7 million (equivalent to $ in ). The construction of the BQE, overseen by Moses, tore through many residential neighborhoods in Brooklyn and Queens instead of following the East River. One portion of the expressway, the two-tiered promenade section in
Brooklyn Heights that was designed by Moses, was originally planned to go straight through Hicks Street, then connect to the Brooklyn Bridge at Adams Street. Another route that was proposed by Moses would have continued up Hicks Street past
Atlantic Avenue, removing all the buildings on one side of Court Street, then curving east into Tillary Street (at
Cadman Plaza). The Brooklyn Heights Association was able to fight these proposed routes, which created the two-tiered section above Furman Street with the promenade over it. Several tunnels were later proposed to replace the promenade, but none of the tunnel proposals were supported or funded. In 1958, existing segments of the expressway were eligible for Interstate Highway funding. For a short time, the segment of highway between the Robert F. Kennedy and Williamsburg bridges was to be designated I-87 and continue north as the Major Deegan Expressway. By 1959, the I-278 designation was given to the entire length of the highway. Since the roadway was constructed prior to modern expressway standards, the road needed to be upgraded to meet these standards. By the 1990s, a major multiyear project beginning in the 1980s brought upgrades to the BQE. In the early 2000s, the expressway underwent another upgrade project that replaced the viaduct within
Downtown Brooklyn and
Fort Greene. Simultaneously, the Queens section of the BQE between Queens Boulevard and 25th Avenue was also renovated. The Koscisuzko Bridge was replaced from 2014 to 2017 with a new eastbound span that temporarily served both directions of traffic. A second span of the Kosciuszko Bridge opened in 2019 for westbound traffic, adding more lanes to the BQE across the bridge. Formerly, the frontage road of the Grand Central Parkway between the BQE and the Robert F. Kennedy Bridge served as a truck route, since large trucks are not permitted on the parkway. Exemptions are provided for smaller trucks that conform with strict regulations, but only on the section of the Grand Central Parkway that overlaps with I-278. In December 2017, the state concluded a $2.5-million (equivalent to $ in ) project that lowered the roadbed of the section of the parkway that is concurrent with I-278. This section of I-278 now has a vertical clearance, which allows most trucks to stay on I-278. In late 2024, the NYCDOT began considering a plan to construct
freeway caps above parts of the Brooklyn–Queens Expressway, as well as converting the spaces under the expressway into public plazas.
Proposed reconstruction in Brooklyn Heights In 1999, the think tank
Reason Foundation proposed placing the BQE within Brooklyn Heights in a tunnel. However, NYCDOT did not seriously consider this suggestion until 2016 when it studied six possible tunnel configurations. NYCDOT found that only the tunnel option starting at 21st Street on Third Avenue and ending near Kent Avenue in Williamsburg would be feasible. This option would have served as a bypass, with vehicles heading to Downtown Brooklyn, or the Manhattan and Williamsburg bridges using the triple cantilever structure, which would be tolled. At the same time, the Brooklyn Heights Promenade was deteriorating significantly and was set to undergo renovations starting 2020. The structure is supported by steel rods inside rebar, which is corroding due to the seeping of road salt into widening cracks. If nothing was done on the roadway by 2026, weight restrictions would have to be implemented, with trucks diverted to local roads, and, by 2036, the city would have to shut down this section of the BQE. The other, more expensive option, which would cost $3.4 billion to $4 billion (equivalent to $ to $ in ) and take over eight years, was to repair the existing six-lane highway one lane at a time. For the project, $1.7 billion in city funding was allocated, with the remainder to be footed from the state and federal governments. Hundreds of people, including Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams and City Comptroller Scott Stringer, rallied on the promenade, calling for more public review. Local residents are strongly opposed to the construction of the temporary six-lane highway as it would run right up against their homes. In response, the Brooklyn Heights Association came up with an alternate plan, which called for the construction of a temporary bilevel roadway running besides the promenade on land including a parking lot. Support for reducing the size of or tearing down the BQE increased, with articles in
New York and
The Wall Street Journal calling for the removal of the highway. They noted how the removal of highways in other cities improved local neighborhoods and led to economic development. Commissioner Trottenberg had dismissed calls to tear down the highway saying that the city got most of its freight by truck and that "For better or for worse, these Moses-built highways [...] now the city has grown around them and it's not an option to just say we can't deal with that traffic." On March 13, 2019, Stringer issued a plan calling for converting the triple cantilever structure and the open cut in Cobble Hill into a truck-only highway between Hamilton Avenue in Carroll Gardens and the Brooklyn Bridge. Under the plan, only the bottom level would be rebuilt and then be decked over by a linear park and boulevard. The report expected passenger vehicles to be diverted into the underused Brooklyn–Battery Tunnel, whose tolls might be lowered when
congestion pricing in New York City was implemented. In early April, de Blasio announced that he would create a panel to formally evaluate each alternative and that the panel's evaluations would end by mid-2019. In February 2020, officials proposed a tunnel from the Gowanus Expressway to Flushing Avenue. The proposal was expected to cost $11 billion, to be paid by tolls. In late 2021, the section between Atlantic Avenue and the Brooklyn Bridge was reduced from three to two lanes per direction, a move that city officials said could prolong the viaduct's life by 20 years. The city also planned to ticket overweight vehicles. There was still no long-term plan for the viaduct by mid-2022, but three preliminary plans for the highway's reconstruction were announced in December 2022. NYCDOT formally presented the three plans to the public in February 2023, and city officials began issuing summonses to overweight vehicles in August of that year. In February 2024, the Federal Highway Administration rejected the city's request for $800 million to redesign and rebuild the cantilever. By the next month, no design had been finalized, and the start date for the triple cantilever's reconstruction had been postponed to 2028. The vehicle restrictions had reduced the number of overweight vehicles on the cantilever by 60% by early 2025.
Bruckner Expressway The Bruckner Expressway was originally Bruckner Boulevard, designated as part of
NY 1A. In the 1930s, a freeway was planned on the Bruckner Boulevard alignment in order to provide a connection between the Robert F. Kennedy Bridge and a freeway leading north into
Westchester County. Construction on the elevated segment of the Bruckner Expressway began in 1957 and on the depressed segment in 1959. The depressed portion was opened in 1961 while the elevated portion of the Bruckner Expressway was opened in 1962. In 1972, the large Bruckner Interchange was finished, completing the route. Over the years, the I-278 portion of the Bruckner Expressway has had different designations. When the Interstate Highway System was first created, the road was to be part of I-895 from I-87 to the Sheridan Expressway and I-678 from there to I-95. Later, I-278 was planned to follow the Bruckner Expressway from I-87 to the Sheridan Expressway, where it would continue on that freeway to I-95, while the Bruckner Expressway was not designated an Interstate north of there. By 1970, I-278 was routed onto its current alignment, with I-895 (now NY 895) created along the Sheridan Expressway. ==Public transportation==