By Betsy Scheinbart
At the end of the month, the Guy R. Brewer bridge over the Belt Parkway in South Jamaica will be closed for a yearlong reconstruction project.
A recent inspection revealed that the bridge, which was build in 1939, was deteriorating significantly, so the city Department of Transportation decided to replace the entire structure.
Community Boards 12 and 13, which cover the southeast Queens neighborhoods affected by the project, backed the DOT’s plan to replace the bridge, said Yvonne Reddick, district manager of Board 12.
“The board supported that they close the bridge down and do what they have to do,” Reddick said of the DOT’s plan, adding that repair work would have taken several years, so it was more efficient to just replace the whole bridge over a 12-month period.
The bridge, which carries two lanes of traffic in both directions — southeast and northwest — is scheduled to reopen in January 2003, but construction of the sidewalk and safety barriers near the bridge will continue through May 2003, said Mohammed Arain, an engineer working on the Jamaica project.
New traffic signals, signs, street lights and other utilities in the area of the bridge will be replaced while approximately 300 new trees will be planted as part of a landscaping improvement, the DOT said.
During the one-year closure, pedestrian access across the highway will be maintained at all times with a temporary pedestrian bridge.
Meanwhile, buses traveling southeast on Guy R. Brewer will be rerouted east on North Conduit Avenue to Farmers Boulevard, the nearest crossing over the Belt Parkway.
This will change North Conduit from a one-way, westbound-only street to a two-way street, with one bus lane going east and three lanes of general traffic going west — a change that worried Board 12 Transportation Committee member Thomas Greenaway.
“They claim they are going to have it set up in such a way that there will not be any head-on collisions,” Greenaway said at last month’s board meeting, “but I have my concerns.”
Reddick was more optimistic about the changes, saying traffic enforcement officers should be able to reroute the cars and buses. But she said she plans to keep a close eye on the project.
“As a district manager, I am certainly going out there to do some monitoring,” she said, “and if it is not working they are going to have to come back [to the board] to work it out.”
Cars that would ordinarily travel southeast on the Guy R. Brewer bridge will be rerouted east on 137th Avenue to Farmers Boulevard, which intersects with Guy R. Brewer a few blocks south of the Belt Parkway in Springfield Gardens.
Buses and cars traveling northwest on Guy R. Brewer can turn right onto Farmers Boulevard, cross the bridge and then take North Conduit west to Guy R. Brewer.
Another alternative highway crossing for cars is Rockaway Boulevard, which spans the Belt Parkway several blocks east of Guy R. Brewer, but reconnects with Guy R. Brewer on the periphery of John F. Kennedy International Airport.
Reach reporter Betsy Scheinbart by e-mail at Timesledger@aol.com or call 229-0300, Ext. 138.
