More Than $120 Million in Federal Grants

Rendering of the QueensWay. Credit: Trust for Public Land

$117 Million Federal Grant for QueensWay Will Support 1.3 Mile Greenway Extension to Forest Park, New Recreational Amenities, and New Connections to Existing Park Facilities 

$5.6 Million Federal Grant Will Help City and State Advance Concepts to Reimagine Future of Brooklyn Queens Expressway Corridor in North and South Brooklyn

New York City Mayor Eric Adams today continued his administration’s unprecedented success in securing federal infrastructure funding by winning two federal “Reconnecting Communities and Neighborhoods Program – Neighborhood Access and Equity Program” grants worth a total of $123.6 million. The grants issued by the U.S. Department of Transportation will support key infrastructure projects in New York City, including the second phase of the QueensWay and planning for the future of the northern and southern sections of the Brooklyn Queens Expressway (BQE).

“Our infrastructure should be bringing communities together, not tearing them apart, and that’s why we aggressively pursued these Reconnecting Communities grants, to reshape our city in a way that unites us,” said Mayor Adams. “The next phase of the QueensWay will add more greenway miles, vibrant parks, and outdoor amenities to neighborhoods across Queens, and the BQE Corridor grant we won moves us closer to undoing some of the damage that Robert Moses caused and invests in beautiful, interconnected new public spaces. My thanks to President Biden and Secretary Buttigieg for establishing this transformational grant program and investing $123 million in federal grants to support our city’s growing infrastructure needs, as well as to all of our city, state, and federal partners who went to bat for New York City.”

“Across New York, we are reconnecting communities that have long been divided by highways and building healthier and more accessible neighborhoods,” said New York Governor Kathy Hochul. “Thanks to support from the Biden-Harris Administration, we are developing a shared vision to improve the quality of life for New Yorkers living near the BQE and I’m committed to working closely with the community and our government partners on this transformational initiative.”

QueensWay Phase Two: Forest Park Pass, $117 million

Mayor Adams announced that NYC Parks and the Trust for Public Land won a $117 million federal grant to further develop the QueensWay, a new public park being built on a vacant corridor of the former LIRR Rockaway Beach Branch. The $117 million grant is the largest competitive federal infrastructure grant won by this administration. The Forest Park Pass project will include an approximately 1.3-mile extension of the greenway into Forest Park, new greenway bridges, new recreational amenities, and new connections to existing facilities in the park including Victory Field.

Once complete, the QueensWay will transform an abandoned railroad line into 47 acres of new park space and seven miles of greenway. The project will cover the Queens neighborhoods of Rego Park, Forest Hills, Glendale, Forest Park, Woodhaven, Richmond Hill, and Ozone Park. The proposal was conceived by the Trust for Public Land and Friends of the QueensWay. The QueensWay will connect neighborhoods with a new greenway corridor of beautiful open space between diverse residential and commercial areas in the borough. The project concept is the result of an extensive community outreach that included public and stakeholder workshops, information tables at local community events and festivals, and more than 20 public tours.

In September 2022, Mayor Adams announced a $35 million investment for design and construction of Phase One of the QueensWay — the Metropolitan Hub (Met Hub). This phase of the project will transform a vacant, city-owned corridor in Forest Hills into a five-acre park with 0.7 miles of greenway, providing residents with new open space, improved access to recreational amenities, outdoor education opportunities for students, and a safe transportation corridor connecting people to schools, businesses, and 10 bus lines. NYCEDC is managing the construction of the Met Hub in collaboration with NYC Parks. The funding includes $2.5 million from the New York City Council. The Met Hub will lead into the new Forest Park Pass.

BQE North and South Planning Grant, $5.6 million

Mayor Adams and New York Governor Kathy Hochul today also announced that the DOT and the New York State Department of Transportation (NYS DOT) won a $5.6 million federal Reconnecting Communities grant to fund planning work to improve quality of life for residents living near the BQE, particularly those from disadvantaged communities.

The grant will help the city and state identify and advance proposals to reconnect communities divided by the Robert Moses-era urban highway. The city and state will develop concepts to reestablish connections in the local transportation network — improving access to jobs, services, and green space, while bolstering pedestrian and cyclist safety.

The work funded by this grant will focus on BQE North — from the Kosciuszko Bridge to Sands Street — and BQE South — from Atlantic Avenue to the Verrazzano Bridge. These sections account for 88 percent of the BQE in Brooklyn and are owned and operated by the state. Since December 2022, DOT has supported grassroots outreach and engagement efforts, led by community-based organizations, across BQE North and South. These efforts resulted in several proposals for the corridor, including partial or full highway caps, space activations and community amenities adjacent to the BQE, and road safety and intersection improvements. The study will review these proposals for feasibility, cost, community support, and other key factors. At least two of those proposals — one for BQE North and one for BQE South — will advance to partial design, laying the groundwork for DOT and NYS DOT to continue developing concepts to reconnect communities across the corridor.

These combined efforts are part of Mayor Adams’ BQE Corridor Vision, to work with communities along Brooklyn’s only interstate highway, investing in communities long divided by the highway, and fixing the city-owned triple cantilever between Atlantic Avenue and Sands Street.

The grants were evaluated based on their commitment to:

• Equity and environmental justice
• Improving community access
• Infrastructure suitability
• Community engagement and community-based partnerships
• Equitable development
• Climate and environment
• Workforce development and economic opportunity

Recent federal legislation, including the Biden-Harris administration’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the Inflation Reduction Act, have made unprecedented amounts of federal funding available for key projects across the country. Recognizing this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, Mayor Adams formed the Federal Infrastructure Funding Task Force. Under Deputy Mayor Joshi’s guidance, that task force evaluates the competitive grant opportunities available, with a focus on new opportunities made possible through both the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the Inflation Reduction Act, and works to break down silos and foster creativity across city agencies. The city has aligned its priorities for high-quality, sustainable, and equitable infrastructure with aggressive and creative grant applications from a wide range of infrastructure agencies. To date, the city has received over $650 million in competitive federal infrastructure grant awards from these sources.