Van Wyck Expressway overpass alongside JFK Airport - South Ozone Park
Photo Gallery: Belt Pkwy
|
The not so new Exit 20 for 150th Street and Rockaway Boulevard located just west of the Van Wyck Expressway, whose own exit from the eastbound Belt is way back east of here at the beginning of the Nassau Expressway. This particular exit used to be well east of here, but continuous construction, reconstruction and realignment projects forced its relocation, and the JFK Expressway basically occupies its old right-of-way. |
| The Van Wyck overpass used to dominate this scene, but starting in year 2000, the nascent Port Authority of NY/NJ Airtrain structure took over the stage. It remains unopen and behind schedule at this point in May, 2003, due in large part to a fatal accident during a test run. It will eventually shuttle airport passengers back and forth to both Jamaica and Howard Beach, but its value at this point remains dubious owing to the lack of direct connections to the city subway system. |
| II'm not sure about the vintage of the 6-lane Van Wyck Expressway overpass. It might date only from the early 1950's, when the Van Wyck was built, or it might have served the Expressway's predecessor boulevard all the way back to the 1930's building of the Belt. I suspect it is the former. The green girdered structure beyond carries the westbound lanes of the Nassau Expressway into North Conduit Avenue. |
|
Closer inspection of the Van Wyck Expressway
arch ceiling reveals the drooping safety netting used by the strapped DOT to
keep loose concrete and other debris from falling onto motorists. It is the
last ditch measure employed city wide in lieu of badly needed repairs to the
bridge, which more likely will eventually be replaced. Photos shot by Rosaura Murillo, May 2003. |