Photo by Arthur Borko
Another truck slammed into the B/Q subway overpass at Avenue P yesterday, resulting in this mess. In March, Arthur (who snapped the above photo) also caught a truck accident at the exact same overpass. It happens way too often, and some residents are asking if large trucks should be banned from Brooklyn streets.
This time at Avenue R. By the time they replace the B/Q stations there’ll be no more train line to service them.
The truck is going in reverse! For three blocks!
Earlier this week we told you about the truck that whacked an Avenue P overpass, and we’ve harped on this problem before. But yesterday we saw some awesome maneuvering by the driver of an 18-wheeler on Avenue U that needs to be spotlighted.
Yesterday around 2:30 p.m., the above pictured truck was moving with traffic until it came to the overpass on Avenue U between East 15th Street and East 16th Street. He jammed on the brakes in time to stop from being peeled open by the 12′-2″ overpass. A police escort arrived in a scooter, and helped block off oncoming traffic while the truck backed up two and half crowded blocks of traffic along Avenue U, then reversed up the wrong way of East 13th Street – even avoiding a double parked car – and then finished up the K-turn to head west on the avenue.
The whole ordeal took about 20 minutes, and I was beyond impressed to watch this driver patiently pull such a ballsy move (not that he had a choice) in an 18-wheeler, as throngs of Asian residents bustled around the cab dismissively. Traffic backed up for a few blocks, but except for a few jerks who recklessly sped off down when they could, drivers were compliant.
Maybe it doesn’t sound so impressive in writing, but I felt the whole act needed to be applauded once it was done. And while some may say the driver never should’ve gotten himself into the situation, I’m wondering if we need clearance signs going back a few blocks to give proper caution (right now, they’re only on the overpasses).
View more photos of an 18-wheeler pulling a K-turn on Avenue U
Arthur Borko’s on a roll today. He spotted this at the Avenue P subway overpass (B/Q). This happens all the time. Do we need bigger clearance signs?
Sheepshead Bites reader Paul (a.k.a PayPaul) came across this nasty scrape earlier today between a callous truck driver and an overpass at Avenue J and East 15th Street. That’s the B/Q station at Avenue J, and as you can see in the photo it has a 10 foot, 10 inch clearance. This truck was taller than that. We can only guess how fast he was going to get that wedged under. Here’s what Paul had to say, and a bunch more photos: Continue Reading »
This week’s slightly late mid-week photo comes to us from Israeli Meir Sadan, who caught this beautiful shot of a commuter at the Sheepshead Bay train station back in 2006. -[via Flickr]
Gothamist Maps – and one Sheepshead Bites reader – is reporting a corpse on the NY-bound tracks at the Kings Highway station. The incident occurred between 8:30pm and 9:00pm, and a portion of the platform remained roped off after 10:00pm. Below is the blurb from Gothamist. Any readers with more information are encouraged to add it in the comments section.
Fatal Person Under Train
E 16 St & Kings Hwy
Brooklyn, NY
5/19/2009 8:43 p.m.
(Courtesy of Acadia Realty)
Acadia Realty, a partner in the enormous Sheepshead Bay Station Plaza development adjacent to the train station platform, has posted floor plans of the mega-establishment on its website. The plans reveal a 16-story residential tower perched on top of four floors of retail, a one-story parking deck and a floor of office space.
If the plans become a reality, the 22-story Sheepshead Bay Station Plaza will stand far taller than any other building in the area, with the Sheepshead Bay train station platform nestled in its shadow.
The website shows that the residential lobby will be on the ground floor on the side closest to Voorhies Avenue, but does not indicate the number of dwellings or inhabitants. The apartment tower will sit directly above an office, which itself is above an 89-space parking deck. The four-floors of retail below is topped off by a fitness center and a community facility. Outside of the main building, a private street is planned that includes an estimated 650 parking spaces and an additional small retail building. In addition to Acadia Realty, the project is being built by PA Associates and GreenbergFarrow.
Continue Reading »
(Photo by Ray Johnson)
Recent construction at local-stop stations has forced commuters to do frequent switchovers at the Sheepshead Bay station to get back to their stop.
This newly-constructed crossover bridge allows riders to walk over the subway track, but leaves little room on the platform. The flyover facilitates transfers near the front of the Manhattan bound B and Q and near the back of the Coney Island bound trains. Now, the transferring commuters won’t have to walk way over to the Voorhies exit or rush through the busy main underpass staircase.
Judging from the wear and tear on the paint and metal on the stairway — after only a month or so of use — it looks like commuters are getting good use of the bridge.
The awkwardly-placed bridge was put up relatively fast compared to some other MTA construction — although, it almost seems as if they might have neglected to plan in a protective screen on the side railings. Some commuters have noted that they feel a little nervous looking straight down onto the train track from such a steep angle, while others say that it is a welcome sense of freedom when everything else is claustrophobically-enclosed and safe.
Thanks to Gowanus Lounge, I’ll be on the lookout this week for the historian, otherwise known as, Master New York Factologist Kevin Walsh.
Gowanus Lounge said that his trip is specifically to take another look at the familiar mural at the Sheepshead Bay train station. But will the historian be able to keep himself from stopping by Randazzo’s for some clam chowder?
It might be that he’s already paid his visit. Has anyone seen him around this part of Forgotten NY area? He might be a little lost, though, since based on this quote, it sounds like he might be wandering over on West 15 Street in Coney Island (of course, he’s not wanderng — he’s the authority on all things New York and even wrote a book):
Sometimes, NYC history can be preserved in the unlikeliest of ways and in the most unusual places. Take a large mural along West 15th Street in the shadow of the BMT Brighton line (B, Q) just north of Sheepshead Bay Road. The mural, entitled “Sheepshead Bay’s Historic Future,” depicts Emmons Avenue as it was in 1994 and how the artist, Faith Palmer-Persen (probably with the camera in the mural), apparently predicted the ways it would evolve.
Anyone in Coney Island seen Mr. Walsh? please point him over here.
