BQE truck ban: Mayor Bill de Blasio announces crackdown on oversized vehicles
NEW YORK CITY (WABC) -- New York City will begin cracking down on oversized trucks on the BQE, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced Friday.
Starting on Monday, trucks weighing more than 80,000 pounds will be fined $7,000.
The mayor signed an executive order at the recommendation of a panel of experts who say oversized trucks are rapidly deteriorating conditions on a section of the highway in Brooklyn Heights.
The heavy trucks have made concerns about the stability of the BQE section "more urgent," and the city will begin "very substantial immediate repairs" on the section in the spring.
The panel of specialists appointed by the mayor to determine the future of the .5-mile stretch realized the conditions were becoming dire.
One recommendation by the panel is to reconstruct the busy section, reducing it from six lanes to four.
De Blasio said that proposal "is certainly worth looking at," but cautioned it's "not a guarantee people get out of their cars. It is a guarantee of traffic jams and other challenges."
The stretch carries 150,000 daily vehicles, including 15,000 trucks. The panel said that could be reduced to 125,000 vehicles with the right policies.
The report says the stretch is in worse shape than previous believed and could be unsafe for drivers in five years.
It recommends immediate repair that will require extensive overnight and weekend closures for at least five years.
A more involved fix could take 10 years.
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