Queens' 'Worst Street' Gets Multi-Million Facelift

QUEENS VILLAGE, QUEENS — One of Queens’ so-called “worst streets” just got a long-awaited, multi-million facelift.

Braddock Avenue, a roughly one-mile street running from the Cross Island Parkway to Hillside Avenue, was once ridden with so many potholes that a local Community Board District Manager compared it to a “moonscape.” But, as of Friday, the street is now a clear, smooth thoroughfare.

“I often referred to Braddock Avenue as the worst street in Queens because of its terrible condition,” said Council Member Barry Grodenchik, whose district encompasses several eastern Queens neighborhoods including Bayside. “But now, we can celebrate its repaving,” he said at a ceremonial ribbon cutting on Friday.

Council Member Grodenchik credited local advocates and several city agencies for the long-awaited reconstruction project’s completion.

The years-long process required replacing 260 feet of sewers and 510 feet of water mains before repaving, according to a news release. It was an effort by the city’s Department of Transportation (DOT), Department of Design and Construction (DDC), and the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP).

And, Braddock Avenue is one of several projects where the three agencies are working in tandem — with a budget of $58 million — to reconstruct streets, alleviate flooding, and upgrade infrastructure in southeastern Queens — an area where there have been “long standing gaps” in infrastructure work, according to the DDC.

“Residents of Queens Village have been plagued for years with crumbling infrastructure,” said New York State Senator John C. Liu, who also represents the area and was at Friday's ribbon cutting. He called the project “long overdue.”

The completion of Braddock Avenue is one of two long-awaited infrastructure projects in Council Member Grodenchik’s district this week — on Thursday the city broke ground on a playground redesign in Little Neck that constituents have been asking for throughout the last decade.