New York City Mayor Eric Adams announced that the city has won two federal grants totaling $123.6 million from the U.S. Department of Transportation’s “Reconnecting Communities and Neighborhoods Program.” The funds will support key infrastructure projects aimed at uniting communities and improving the quality of life for New Yorkers.
The larger of the two grants, worth $117 million, will go towards the second phase of the QueensWay project, known as the Forest Park Pass. The QueensWay is a new public park being built on a vacant corridor of the former LIRR Rockaway Beach Branch, spanning several Queens neighborhoods. The grant will fund a 1.3-mile extension of the greenway into Forest Park, new bridges, recreational amenities, and connections to existing park facilities.
Once completed, the QueensWay will transform an abandoned railroad line into 47 acres of park space and seven miles of greenway, connecting diverse residential and commercial areas in the borough. The project is a collaboration between NYC Parks, the Trust for Public Land, and Friends of the QueensWay, and has been conceived through extensive community outreach.
The second grant, worth $5.6 million, will fund planning work to improve the quality of life for residents living near the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway (BQE), particularly those from disadvantaged communities. The New York City Department of Transportation and the New York State Department of Transportation will use the grant to identify and advance proposals to reconnect communities divided by the BQE, improving access to jobs, services, and green spaces while enhancing pedestrian and cyclist safety.
The planning work will focus on the northern and southern sections of the BQE, which account for 88 percent of the highway in Brooklyn. The study will review community-generated proposals for feasibility, cost, and support, with at least two proposals advancing to partial design.
These grants are part of Mayor Adams’ BQE Corridor Vision, which aims to invest in communities divided by the highway and fix the city-owned triple cantilever section. The grants were evaluated based on their commitment to equity, environmental justice, community access, infrastructure suitability, community engagement, equitable development, climate and environment, and workforce development.
The federal funding for these projects comes from recent legislation, including the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the Inflation Reduction Act. Mayor Adams formed the Federal Infrastructure Funding Task Force to evaluate competitive grant opportunities and foster creativity across city agencies. To date, the city has received over $650 million in competitive federal infrastructure grant awards.
U.S. Senator Charles Schumer and U.S. Representatives Dan Goldman and Grace Meng have expressed their support for the projects, emphasizing the importance of rectifying environmental injustice and providing much-needed green space and transportation options in Queens. The QueensWay project, in particular, has garnered support from local officials and community advocates who have worked tirelessly to make the green space a reality for future generations
