Construction On BK's Empire Boulevard Extended Another Year: City

CROWN HEIGHTS, BROOKLYN — A years-long construction project on Empire Boulevard will drag on another year after delays caused by weather and the coronavirus crisis, according to officials.

The renovation — which aims to improve safety at two Empire Boulevard intersections — is now slated to wrap up construction in late 2022, a year later than its original estimated completion date in the fall of 2021, officials told Community Board 9's Transportation Committee last week.

The extension comes after a series of coronavirus restrictions and cold weather delayed construction, said Alexandra Girgis of the city's Department of Design and Construction.

"[The extension] was due to a bunch of factors that caused delays and we did need to extend the timeline for the project," Girgis told the board.

The Empire Boulevard redesign was first announced in 2015 and aims to improve pedestrian safety near Washington and Franklin avenues and an intersection near Utica and East New York avenues, according to the project.

So far, construction crews have been working on the Utica Avenue side of the project, but will soon move to the Franklin Avenue intersection to do sewer and water main replacements underground, Girgis said.

That round of construction will likely include road closures on Franklin Avenue between Empire Boulevard and Sullivan Place that will last four to six weeks, she told the board. Exact details about the closures were not yet available at the time of the meeting, but will likely fall between 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. on weekdays, Girgis said.

When the weather gets warmer, construction crews will move back to the Utica Avenue area to replace sidewalks and do other surface renovations, she added.

The safety upgrade project comes after nearly 500 people were injured near the two intersections between 2009 and 2013, ranking Empire Boulevard in the top 10 percent of dangerous Brooklyn corridors, according to a presentation at the time.

Construction crews are putting in slip lane closures, wider sidewalks, shorter pedestrian crossings and new public space to help with the safety issues. The project will also improve signal timing at Utica Avenue and create a block of two-way traffic on East New York Avenue, according to the plans.