Results tagged “bqe”

After Congresswoman Nydia Velazquez obtained $300,000 in public funds last year for a study to explore possible solutions on what to do with the BQE Ditch, the area along the Columbia waterfront between Cobble Hill and Carroll Gardens, the input-gathering process is finally underway—via soliciting blog comments. So fire away. [Brownstoner]

The Atlantic Avenue exit of the BQE turned out to be the exit ramp used by one more passenger than was expected Thursday morning when a police officer ended up helping deliver a baby alongside the highway. 37-year-old Officer George Tsoukaris said he hasn't had to help out on a case like this since his rookie days on the NYPD. When Tsoukaris was flagged down Thursday around 11a.m. by a woman in labor and her husband intending to take the BQE out to a Staten Island hospital, he quickly discovered that there wasn't going to be enough time until an EMT arrived...or even time for him to put on gloves for that matter! The couple has chosen not to reveal themselves after taking their healthy newborn to Long Island College Hospital. But the News got the adorable story out of the cop, who says, "She was screaming at the top of her lungs. he's yelling, 'The baby's coming out, the baby's coming out!' ... It's one thing to see the miracle of life in a controlled environment like a hospital, but it's another thing to have it happen on the highway."

The BQE is back up and running after a massive accident left 59 people injured and closed off eastbound lanes for a good portion of the morning following rush hour. A school bus, a casino bus and a tractor trailed were involved with what the Daily News calls a chain reaction accident just before the Kosciuszko Bridge connecting Brooklyn and Queens near the McGuinness Blvd. exit and not far from the Midtown Tunnel. A large majority of the victims were treated at the scene for bumps and bruises. Six people were taken to local hospitals. Newsday says that two went to the Wyckhoff and Woodhull Hospitals in Brooklyn and the other four "were taken to an unknown medical facility by a Hatzolah ambulance, which is operated by Jewish volunteers." Newsmap also shows what appears to be a second accident on nearby westbound lanes, where an overturned chicken truck shut down the highway while waiting for sanitation to clean up.

      

In 2004 park officials retained landscape architect Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates to design the new waterfront for Brooklyn Bridge Park. His solution to mute the traffic noise coming off the BQE was to erect a physical barrier between the roadway and the landscaped area, but some folks have declared that this current $7 million solution has numerous problems (most notably that it simply won't work).

Morning rush hour drivers along the BQE this morning encountered a series of signs protesting the occupation of Gaza and what is seen as Israeli war crimes hung by the group Jews Against the Occupation. Signs such as "FREE GAZA" and "JEWS SAY: STOP ISRAEL" were draped from overpasses as commuters headed southbound along the highway.

Reader Joel sent us this photograph of some billowing black smoke in downtown Brooklyn (he took it from Manhattan--see a bigger image here). While it looks ominous--and there is a lot of smoke--it turns out it is a truck fire on the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway, where it comes out near Middagh/Hicks Streets. The truck was reportedly carrying construction materials, but nothing hazardous.

A fatal car accident late Friday night left body parts strewn across the BQE in Williamsburg after a man was hit by two separate cars while trying to cross the highway. The accident took place near Wythe Avenue just before midnight . The first car that hit the man sped away from the scene while there were no charges for the second car which remained until police arrived. The victim was a 23-year-old Massachusetts native whose identity will not be released until police notify his family. Police say the impact was severe enough that body parts of the victim ended up on the street below. Update:The blog NYU Local is reporting that the victim was NYU sophomore Paul Fortini.

Around 5:45 a.m., a tractor-trailer crashed into a livery car on the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway at Morgan Avenue, near the Kosciusko Bridge. The vehicles were Brooklyn-bound, and the collision caused the tractor-trailer to jackknife across the divider and hit a Queens-bound car.

Earlier this morning, a tractor trailer overturned on the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway. The tractor trailer's cargo - an assortment of live chickens - spilled onto the highway and broke open, leaving crews to chase a lot of fowl for hours during clean-up (a worker estimated there were 500!). It's unclear whether all the chickens were retrieved, so if you live near Flushing Avenue and see a feathered friend more suited to a coop than a tree, you'll know why.