SHEEPSHEAD BAY'S ONLY INDEPENDENT NEWS BLOG

Source: BikeNewYork.org

Attention drivers! There will be a number of street, bridge and highway closures all over the city this Sunday, as the Five Boro Bike Tour takes two-wheeling participants from edge to edge of New York City.

Most relevant to our area is that a portion of the Verrazano-Narrow Bridge will be closed for most of the day, as will the Gowanus Expressway and BQE.

The lower level of the Verrazano Bridge from Brooklyn to Staten Island will be closed from 12:01 a.m. to 6 p.m. The Brooklyn-bound lower level will also close at 12:01 a.m. Two lanes will reopen about 8 a.m. The upper level will be open in both directions.

From 7:45 a.m. to 6:30 p.m., the BQE/ Gowanus Expressway will be closed between BQE – West Entrance Columbia Street and the Verrazano Bridge. Beyond Columbia Street, the Bike Tour’s route is mainly on local streets, though their presence on the BQE also means traffic exiting the Hugh L. Carey (Brooklyn Battery) Tunnel in Brooklyn will be diverted to Hamilton Avenue from 10 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.

If you’re planning on driving around any other borough on Sunday, make sure you check with the DOT’s advisory.

Source: satyadasa via flickr

Progress continues on the Department of Transportation’s (DOT) seven-year renovation plan of the Belt Parkway’s seven bridges and overpasses, as the Fresh Creek Basin Bridge opened to westbound traffic, according to a press release.

As we’ve previously reported, construction along the Belt Parkway has caused heavy traffic problems, so the opening of the Fresh Creek Basin Bridge should help the thousands of cars that run along the highway flow. DOT Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan seems to thinks so.

“Each day our Belt Parkway bridges come alive, carrying 150,000 cars and connecting commuters and commerce across the city and the region,” she announced in the press release.

The bridges and overpasses were built over a half century ago, forcing the impetus for revitalization and repair:

As with the other six Belt Parkway bridges, the total replacement of the Fresh Creek Basin Bridge and its approach roadways will provide the necessary upgrades to bring the structure into compliance with current State and Federal standards. This includes wider travel lanes, safety shoulders, median barriers, improved elevation of the roadway around curves and realignment for improving sight distances and drainage enhancements. This project replaces the original Fresh Creek Basin Bridge, which, along with the other Belt Parkway bridges, was constructed more than 70 years ago and has reached the end of its useful life.

Source: Antonio Martínez López / Flickr

Whether by car, bus or subway, getting around in New York City is about to become a little more expensive.

The MTA Board approved the agency’s 2013 budget this morning, which included a set of mass transit, bridge and toll hikes across the metropolitan region.

Find out what the new rates are, and how the MTA’s budget is looking overall.

Source: wallyg via Flickr

Tomorrow, the board of the MTA will cast their votes on raising tolls on the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge to a whopping $15 – and local pols are fuming.

State Senator Marty Golden, Congressman Michael Grimm and Assemblywoman Nicole Malliotakis issued a joint statement to the board and its chairman, Joe Lhota, urging them to kill the proposal and grant Brooklynites and Staten Islanders a measure of economic relief.

The statement follows a letter sent by the trio on December 13. In it, they wrote:

This proposal will hit the pockets of all New Yorkers who traverse the Verrazano Bridge for the purposes of work, shopping, medical care, family visits, and more. It is just unacceptable that the most expensive bridge in the world, already at $13, has the potential to become more expensive.

… In these difficult economic times, the last thing New Yorkers need is the burden of additional travel expenses. The proposal now before the MTA will further strain the budgets of millions of New York’s families and cause a loss of revenue for countless businesses. This proposal is not only misguided, it is something New Yorkers are not willing to accept.

The current proposal calls for raising the toll $2, from $13 to $15. The increase would be $1.06 for those with E-Z Pass.

The three Republican legislators are not alone. Last month, Democratic Councilman Vincent Gentile stood before the board at its November 28 hearing and blasted the plan. He also demanded that the MTA extend the discount they give to Staten Island residents to Brooklyn residents as well.

The MTA has announced it will resume toll collection at the two bridges connecting the Rockaways to Brooklyn and Queens.

Toll collection at the Marine Parkway-Gil Hodges Memorial Bridge and Cross Bay Veterans Bridge will resume beginning 12:01 a.m. on Saturday, December 1.

The $3.25 cash toll and $1.80 E-ZPass toll for cars on both bridges were suspended on November 4 to help vehicles traveling back and forth for Sandy recovery efforts in the hard hit Queen’s peninsula. Tolls paid by residents immediately following the October 29 storm were retroactively credited back to customers’ accounts.

Photo by Erica Sherman

Good news for commuters traveling across the Marine Parkway-Gil Hodges Memorial Bridge and the Cross Bay Veterans Memorial Bridge, as all tolls have been suspended. The suspension on tolls officially began last night, but those who used the bridges after their reopening post Sandy, will be reimbursed via their E-ZPass accounts.

The suspension will last through the end of November, or as long as the recovery continues. More information on the toll suspension, which normally costs $3.25 in cash, and $1.80 for E-ZPass users can be found here. Unfortunately, it does not provide information on reimbursements for those who paid cash when using the tolls, so those motorists without E-ZPass who used the bridges in the past week will probably be out of luck, but for now, they are free for everyone.

Yay!

Source: Alistair McMillan via Wikimedia Commons

The Metropolitan Transit Authority released a proposal outlining options pertaining to the fare hike that is due to take effect in March of 2013. The MTA is looking at combinations of hikes for the single ride cost, weekly cards, monthly cards and so on.

The proposal for fare increases is meant to generate an extra $277 million.

“Costs that the MTA does not exercise control over, namely those for debt service, pensions, energy, paratransit, and employee and retiree health care, continue to increase beyond the rate of inflation,” said MTA Chairman and CEO Joseph Lhota in a release. “We are grappling with long-term measures to reduce these frustrating and difficult non-discretionary expenses, but today, they are the drivers of the need for a fare and toll increase.”

The first proposal, which the MTA labeled Proposal 1A, states that the regular subway and bus fare would increase to $2.50 from $2.25 while the weekly card would increase to $30 from $29 and the unlimited would be $112 instead of $104.

The second option, or 1B, would increase the base fare to $2.50, the bonus for riders who put $10 on their cards would be eliminated, the 30-day card would cost $109 and the weekly card would remain the same price.

With the third proposal, known as 2A, the base fare stays at $2.25, the bonus fare sees a five percent deduction, the seven day jumps to $34 and the monthly card jumps to a soaring $125.

The fourth choice, 2B, keeps the base fare the same as well, takes away the bonus amount riders receive when they put $10 on their cards, 30-days rise to $119 and weekly cards to $119.

Further, the MTA will tack on a $1 fee for new cards in an effort to encourage the recycling of used cards by riders.

The proposal announcement made by the MTA is in conjunction with several public hearings that will take place all over the city. The public hearing scheduled for Brooklyn is set for November 7 at the New York Marriott at the Brooklyn Bridge at 333 Adams Street, from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. The MTA board expects to vote on the proposal hike on December 19.

“Here they go again,” wrote Senator Marty Golden in a statement following the announcement. “In the environment of a struggling economy, when many New Yorkers are out of work, the Metropolitan Transit Authority is wrongfully looking to dig deeper into the pockets of straphangers and motorists. I adamantly oppose attempts to increase the cost of MetroCards, the express bus fare and the base toll for the Verrazano Bridge at this time. This is unacceptable – we are already asked to pay too much.”

The Long Island Rail Road, Metro-North and MTA bridges, like the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge and the Marine Parkway‐Gil Hodges Memorial Bridge, would also see increases in tolls and tickets.

“The MTA’s recently announced toll and fare increases are nothing short of outrageous.  With over $17 billion committed to the Second Avenue subway tunnel and $8.4 billion to connect the LIRR to Grand Central Terminal, it is clear that Manhattan gets the infrastructure and improvements, while the people of Bay Ridge get the bill.  It’s evident that these megaprojects cannot be afforded,” said Assemblywoman Nicole Malliotakis in a release. “Bay Ridge residents rely on the Verrazano Bridge and MTA transportation services to commute to work and visit relatives.  The MTA must stop looking at us as a bank account to cover its losses.”

Photo by Erica Sherman

If you are a motorist who frequently drives over the Marine Parkway-Gil Hodges Memorial Bridge — prepare to be inconvenienced for the next month or so.

According to a release we received from the MTA, beginning on Wednesday, August 29, through an undetermined date in October, there will be multiple daily bridge lifts at the Marine Parkway-Gil Hodges Memorial Bridge due to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ marsh islands restoration project in Jamaica Bay.

The MTA tells us that the lifts, which will take place around-the-clock, “require full periodic closures of the bridge” and that “it takes approximately15 minutes to raise and lower the bridge.”

If you’re looking to avoid the inevitable traffic delays caused by the bridge lifts, motorists are advised to use the Cross Bay Veterans Memorial Bridge as an alternate.

Federal code requires MTA Bridges and Tunnels to comply with bridge lift requests to allow large marine vessels to cross.

FDNY Marine Units are underneath the Gerritsen Inlet Bridge, dousing the beach with water in an effort to quell a brush fire.

The fire broke out on the eastern bank of the waterway, across from Plumb Beach. Reader Bill W. sent us the above photo, taken at 1:00 p.m.

Brush fires remain an ongoing problem in the relatively untamed areas of Plumb Beach, Gerritsen Beach and Floyd Bennett Field. We reported in March about a brush fire in Gerritsen that took three hours to get under control. At Floyd Bennett Field, park activists were outraged to learn that more than half of the fire hydrants were broken when evaluated in 2011, and say that plans to add campsites and a natural gas pipeline in the park create a serious threat in light of potential for similar fires.

This is a breaking news story and may contain inaccuracies. We will update it as more information becomes available. If anyone has more information or additional photos, please send them to tips (at) sheepsheadbites (dot) com.

A tractor trailer illegally traveling eastbound on the Belt Parkway struck the subway overpass at East 14th Street, tearing open its haul and causing an SUV behind it to slam into its rear.

The driver of the SUV escaped injury, though the vehicle’s front was crushed. The accident, which occurred just before 9:30 a.m., caused severe delays on the Belt Parkway as authorities shut down all lanes of traffic.

Authorities removed the cargo from the tractor trailer to get it under the overpass. A fire truck hooked its front to the tractor trailer’s load and dragged it off the highway to the Shore Parkway service road, between East 15th Street and Sheepshead Bay Road, which authorities closed to traffic. The highway was reopened just after 10:00 a.m. as a tow truck carried the crushed SUV to the service road as well.

Tractor trailers, like all commercial vehicles, are not permitted on the Belt Parkway.

“I know that. I know,” the driver told Sheepshead Bites when asked if he knew about the restriction. “My boss told me to go on 27. I thought it was closed … so just a little bit.”

The truck driver faces a summons for the violation.

As of this writing, tow truck operators, police and Department of Transportation officials are still on the scene. The tractor trailer’s cargo, was loaded onto a flatbed truck for removal, leaving scratches in the asphalt from where it was dragged.

The overpass had no notable damage, a police officer on the scene told Sheepshead Bites.

FDNY trucks pull the tractor-trailer's load from the highway to the service road, dragging it over the divider. (Photo by Diana R.)