NYC DOT Establishes Gowanus Construction Acceleration Task Force

For its Gowanus Expressway reconstruction project, the New York State DOT recently established a new "Construction Acceleration Task Force" consisting of state highway planners, Brooklyn elected officials and some business interests but excluding community activists who have

established themselves as watchdogs of the DOT's activities in NYC's most populous borough. The move is certainly a response to the September meeting between community and business interests, Brooklyn congressional representatives and FHWA Administrator Rodney Slater, during which

profound concern was expressed over the DOT's plan to divert a large volume of highway traffic onto local streets for up to 10 years. Representatives of Transportation Alternatives, the Gowanus Expressway Community Coalition and the Tri-State Transportation Campaign recently met with DOT

Commissioner Egan to insist that community groups be made full partners in any deliberations on the fate of the Gowanus, and to reiterate requests that the project be subject to full environmental and alternatives reviews. So far, Egan has only committed to opening a project office in the Gowanus

corridor (a strategy that worked well for the DOT in accomplishing its capacity-expansion aims in the Manhattan Rte 9a project) and will attend a November 21 Brooklyn public meeting. For an account of Egan's response to Tri-State Campaign offers of collaboration and consensus-building in the

Cross-Westchester corridor, see above, p 1.