New York City crews are expected back at work along McGuinness Blvd. in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, on Tuesday, after pausing street redesign work for the winter.
The DOT workers are set to pick up where they left off last year, wrapping up work started at the north end of the street near the Pulaski Bridge.
DOT officials said the work would include new pedestrian islands, a new crossing at Freeman St. and signal upgrades, as well as visibility improvements and increased speed-limit enforcement.
The agency is also in the process of analyzing traffic data collected along the boulevard over the winter.
That data will be used to measure the efficacy of the current measures before making a plan for the southern portion of McGuinness, a DOT spokesman said.
“Traffic safety is a key priority for Mayor Adams, and we are delivering a redesign of McGuinness Blvd. that will make this corridor safer for everyone,” DOT Commissioner Ydanis Rodriguez said in a statement.
“Too many New Yorkers have been injured or lost their lives on McGuinness Blvd., and working with the community we will continue to make significant safety improvements,” he said.
McGuinness Blvd. was initially slated for a more comprehensive redesign, spurred by the 2021 hit-and-run killing of beloved Brooklyn teacher Matthew Jensen.
That plan, which would have removed two car lanes from the four-lane road and replaced them with protected bike lanes while maintaining street parking, got the kibosh from Adams last July.
City Councilman Lincoln Restler, whose district includes the whole of McGuinness Blvd., has said the current compromise falls short of the mark.
In an interview on NY1 Sunday, Restler was asked if the work done so far had yielded any improvements.
“Not a significant improvement, no,” he said.
“What we’ve demanded … is to reduce a lane of traffic in each direction, so that we can stop the violence that we see on McGuinness Blvd.,” Restler continued. “This is not about adding bike lanes. This is about reducing the amount of cars and trucks that are speeding through our community.”
