By Ryan Schwach
A strip of highway in Southeast Queens infamous for its tendency to flood will lastly be the topic of a grant-funded examine into potential flood mitigation strategies, a lot to the enjoyment of locals who’ve been asking for modifications to the highway for many years.
The chronically flooded Brookville Boulevard, higher recognized to locals as Snake Road as a result of approach it winds in a serpent-like style by the wetlands of Idlewild Park, is now scheduled to endure a flood mitigation examine to find out what might be performed to make the highway safer for Queens commuters.
A complete of $3.1 million value of grant money from FEMA and the state will go towards the examine – on high of $300,000 from the town – which appears to be like to analysis and tackle fixed flooding alongside the sea-level Snake Road.
The examine will begin subsequent yr, in line with the Department of Transportation, and can take a projected 30 months to finish.
The examine will take into account elevating the prevailing roadway, rerouting the highway approach, or putting indicators and warning gadgets to enhance situations forward of any extra expensive capital enhancements.
The highway, albeit infamous for its turns and fixed flooding, can also be recognized to locals as a faster path to get round
“It’s very convenient,” mentioned Community Board 13 Chair Mark McMillan, “It’s a shortcut. If you live in Rosedale and you want to go south, that’s a really good way.”
McMillan says that taking Snake Road saves a median of 15 to twenty minutes in both path for native commuters who work on the Rockaway peninsula or out in Long Island.
However, throughout instances of excessive tide and storm intervals, taking that shortcut for the excessive reward, comes at an equally excessive danger.
“Once you get on the road, you can’t even really make a U-turn to get off it,” mentioned McMillan. “So once you arrive, you’re committed.”
This typically ends in commuters making an attempt to make use of the highway earlier than it’s formally shut, after which getting caught.
The issues have been pervasive for someday. The situation is so unhealthy, in truth, that the MTA pulled their bus routes from the strip in 2019.
“If it rains, you can’t pass it,” mentioned native Assemblymember Khaleel Anderson. “If it rains, it pours, literally and figuratively.”
