After years of uncertainty, city breaks ground on full McGuinness Boulevard redesign * Brooklyn Paper

The Department of Transportation will extend an existing redesign on McGuinness Boulevard south of Calyer Street to the northern area up to Freeman Street. The changes will remove one lane of vehicle traffic in each direction and add parking-protected bike lanes along both curbs. The work is expected to take two or three months. After completion, parking-protected bike lanes will run from the Pulaski Bridge to the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway. The redesign aims to make street crossings safer for children and parents, protect cyclists, reduce reckless driving, and convert a highway-like corridor into a calmer neighborhood street. The project began after a fatal crash in May 2021 and faced delays and plan reconsideration before moving forward.

"Starting this week, the Department of Transportation will extend the design already in place on the boulevard south of Calyer Street, taking away one lane of vehicle traffic in each direction and adding parking-protected bike lanes along both curbs, up to Freeman Street."

"When it's finished, the infamously dangerous boulevard will have parking protected bike lanes all the way from the Pulaski Bridge to the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway."

""McGuinness Boulevard should stitch Greenpoint together, not divide it in half," Flynn said. "These upgrades will make it safer and easier for children and parents to cross the street, it will protect cyclists, reduce reckless driving and transform what can feel like a highway into a calmer neighborhood street.""

"The redesign has been in the works since public school teacher Matthew Jensen was killed in a in May 2021. After Jensen's death, locals created the advocacy group Make McGuinness Safe, then-Mayor Bill de Blasio allocated capital funding for a total redesign of the boulevard, and the city started public outreach for in-house safety improvements."

Read at Brooklyn Paper