Kosciuszko Bridge rebuild gets a boost from…dynamite?

The Kosciuszko Bridge’s fate will finally reflect what angry, waylaid drivers have wished upon it for years: it’s getting blown the heck up. That’s only part of the truth—the Post (h/t Gothamist) reports that as soon as traffic can be moved from the existing span to the new bridge being built alongside of it, the old span that carries the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway over Newtown Creek is coming down.

To get technical, the Brooklyn and Queens approaches of the bridge will be dynamited and the middle portion over the creek will be hauled off. It’ll take two barges two days to haul off the 2,400-ton middle portion according to the Coast Guard (h/t Brooklyn Paper). This method will expedite the construction of the new bridge by seven to nine months, Gothamist reports.

Although the new bridge will be accessible starting in 2018, construction on the whole project, including a second bridge with bike and walking paths, isn’t expected to wrap up until 2020. The first bridge will have five lanes ultimately serving Queens, and the second bridge will run the opposite direction and include the auxiliary paths.

The Post says the first phase of the rebuilding the bridge, which kicked off in 2013, cost taxpayers $550 million. A request for proposals is expected to be issued for the second half of the bridge shortly.

UPDATE: A park will likely be a part of the plan to replace the existing 77-year-old Kosciuszko Bridge, DNAinfo has learned. Both city and state officials are considering building a park on the Queens side of the bridge, specifically along 43rd Street, between 55th and 54th Avenues, according to DNAinfo. That parcel of land is currently owned by the State’s Department of Transportation, which intends to build the park and then hand it over to the city. Since the project is in the preliminary stages, details are still scarce.

• This NYC bridge is about to be blown to bits [NYP via Gothamist]
• Queens Side of Kosciuszko Bridge Could Get New Park, Officials Say [DNAinfo]
• Check Out These Renderings for the New Kosciuszko Bridge [Curbed]