The Fingerboard Road overpass will be part of the $75 million project along a 1.8-mile stretch of the Staten Island Expressway between the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge and Clove Road.
(The road to a new expressway: First in a periodic series)
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Signs are up, barriers are going in, and dirt is being dug on the first visible signs of construction along the Staten Island Expressway.
The $75 million project will add or improve eight on- and off-ramps along a 1.8-mile stretch between the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge and Clove Road, and build additional "auxiliary lanes" to connect those ramps.
The construction is going to be difficult to live through, but the end result should, we are told, be worth the pain.
The goal of the tweaks is to keep through traffic moving more efficiently on the main highway and its service roads by moving the ramps closer to the major intersections where drivers want to get on and off.
While much of the work in the near term will include leveling ground in preparation of pouring concrete next spring, one phase of construction will have an immediate impact on motorists. To make room for the new auxiliary lanes, and add a new turning lane to meet anticipated future traffic demands, the Fingerboard Road overpass bridge will be closed and widened, one half at a time.
The western half of the overpass will close in the coming days, with traffic flowing in one lane in each direction on the eastern half of the overpass for the eight months it will take to widen the closed half. The sidewalk on the eastern side will remain open for pedestrians.
When the new half reopens next summer, traffic will be sent over that portion while the remaining half is widened.
The auxiliary lanes built on both sides of the highway will connect the new on- and off-ramps that will be built, and give drivers a separate space to merge, so as not to slow down through traffic on the main highway lanes.
Meanwhile, Brooklyn-bound, the Lily Pond and Capodanno Boulevard entrance ramps leading to the Verrazano will be improved.
On the New Jersey-bound side, the current Lincoln Place on-ramp will be closed. A new on-ramp will open to same amount of traffic that now pours onto the expressway from School Road and Lily Pond Avenue -- about 540 vehicles an hour at peak times -- onto the service road, instead, meeting Narrows Road North at Fingerboard.
Residents living along Narrows Road North have expressed concern about an increase in traffic past their front yards, said Leticia Remauro, chairwoman of Community Board 1.
Representatives from the state Department of Transportation, which is overseeing the project, have already made several presentations to the board regarding the project, and Ms. Remauro said she encourages the agency to offer continued updates to address other issues as they arise. Residents have also expressed concerns about the tree removal needed to make room for the new ramps, and an increase in noise.
"This highway as our major thoroughfare has just not kept up" with increasing traffic, she said. "Many people are using the service roads to avoid the highway, because the highway is not actually moving."
If the DOT accomplishes its goal and the end result is as effective as engineers predict, "then it is a good plan and it was all worth our while," she said.
But the agency should remain open to feedback, she added, while the plans that exist on paper now quickly take shape and start to affect people's lives.
Other visible signs of work can be seen along the rest of the construction area, with concrete barriers installed around Richmond and Clove roads and Hylan Boulevard. The barriers will protect crews as they build the new auxiliary lanes.