Queens Boulevard Redesign To Be Completed Oct. 29, Officials Say

FOREST HILLS, QUEENS — The city will complete the long-delayed final phase of the Queens Boulevard redesign project on Oct. 29, a couple of days ahead of the November schedule, city officials announced on Wednesday.

The street safety project, which involves redesigning the 1.2-mile stretch of the boulevard between Yellowstone Boulevard and Union Turnpike in Forest Hills, was initially slated for completion in 2019, but stalled multiple times due to the pandemic and local pushback about parking spaces. Construction began anew in August with the hopes of finishing in November, Mayor Bill de Blasio said.

On Wednesday, however, the mayor and other officials stood in front of the boulevard by 70 Road in Forest Hills, near a newly installed flexible barrier dividing the bike and car lane, to announce that the project will be complete by the end of October and applaud the new safety improvements.

“Safety improvements like these make our city more livable for everyone who uses our streets – and they recognize that our responsibility is to make sure a car doesn’t turn into a weapon,” said the mayor, who was one of several at the news conference to refer to Queens Boulevard as the “Boulevard of Life,” a play on the roadway’s moniker as the “Boulevard of Death.”

In addition to the safety benefits of crosswalks, slip lanes, and protective barriers, officials at the news conference spoke about how the boulevard redesign will help to connect the borough in an energy-efficient way.

“In certain parts of Queens, it is easier to get to Florida by plane than Manhattan by train,” said Queens Borough President Donovan Richards, who stressed that the redesign is about ensuring connection.

He also noted that the project is related to the city’s climate goals, including getting more people to use alternative modes of transportation.

“If you want to reduce carbon emissions, we have to get people out of their cars. But we also know that to get people out of their cars, the streets have to be safe. And if the streets don't feel safe, people are not going to cycle,” he said, also noting that investing in the borough’s public transit system is a way to reduce carbon emissions.

While transportation, pedestrian, and environmental advocates agree that there’s a lot to celebrate with the completion of this final phase, many believe it is coming a little too late.

Danny Harris, executive director of Transportation Alternatives, said that he was “very pleased” when plans for the redesign were announced this summer, but that it shouldn’t have taken this long and that the city should extend the project to Hillside Avenue, as was initially proposed.

At Wednesday’s news conference the mayor dodged a press question about if he planned to extend the bike lane to Jamaica.

“One step at a time, we’re looking citywide where all the next steps should be, but Vision Zero’s going to keep rolling,” he told Kevin Duggan of AMNY.

Angela Azzolino, founder and executive director of the group Get Women Cycling acknowledged that more can “always” be done to improve street safety, but that the Queens Boulevard redesign will make a noticeable impact for the pedestrians and cyclists in Forest Hills.

“The change we notice [in Forest Hills] is the increase in traffic: people and cars. But the people traffic is hardly seen. The street space is overtaken by cars,” she said, adding that the city’s Vision Zero project and this final redesign phase will help “make people the priority, not the cars or trucks we drive.”

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