By Kathianne Boniello
The project to revamp the interchange between the Clearview and Long Island expressways is well ahead of schedule, an engineer from the state Department of Transportation said last week.
The work to upgrade the intersection between the two thoroughfares began in May and was slated to last until June 2003, but roughly 20 percent of it is already done, Pat Prancl, the engineer in charge of the project, told a community meeting on the project at the Fresh Meadows public library last Thursday.
The Clearview Expressway-LIE project is the second of three major road construction projects taking place in northeast Queens, where the state DOT is also undertaking the reshaping of the intersection between the Cross Island Parkway and the Long Island Expressway less than two miles away from the Clearview Expressway work.
Local streets in Bayside between the two reconstruction projects will be affected later this year when a separate sewer project designed to alleviate flooding around Queensborough Community College gets underway.
The Clearview Expressway project is not near homes in the area, Prancl said, and the effects of construction — noise, construction vehicles and torn-up streets — are not highly visible to residents. The other two major roadway projects in northeast Queens, the Cross Island Parkway-LIE project and the Oakland Ravine Sewer project, were expected to block local streets and inconvenience the community because of the nature of the work.
The majority of the Clearview Expressway-LIE work will concentrate on the repaving or rebuilding of the entrance/exit ramps connecting the two highways. Prancl said work to temporarily widen six of the eight ramps had already begun.
Permanent concrete work has already been done on several ramps, Prancl said, including the eastbound to northbound ramp and the southbound to westbound ramp. A new retaining wall along the southbound/westbound ramp has also been started, he said.
“Basically we’re 20 percent done with the job with less than 10 percent of the time elapsed,” Prancl said.
The heaviest traveled ramps, he said, are the ones that take drivers from the westbound LIE to the northbound Clearview and the ramp letting travelers go from the southbound Clearview to the eastbound Long Island Expressway.
Reach reporter Kathianne Boniello by e-mail at Timesledger@aol.com or call 229-0300, Ext. 146.
