Crackdown on BQE trucks expands to safeguard crumbling NYC roadway

The city is further cracking down on overweight trucks crossing a dangerously dilapidated section of the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway starting on Monday.

The move comes after the city’s Department of Transportation reported the number of overweight vehicles dropped 60% after officials began enforcing the 80,000 pound weight limit over a year ago on the Queens-bound lanes of the BQE's triple cantilever, the three-tiered section of the highway in Brooklyn Heights. Now, vehicles crossing the Staten Island-bound section of the highway will also be subject to the restrictions.

The 1.5-mile stretch has been deteriorating for years but neither Mayor Eric Adams nor former Mayor Bill de Blasio’s administrations have executed credible plans to fix it, beyond enforcing already-existing restrictions on overweight vehicles.

Starting Monday, the city will begin the 90-day warning period for overweight trucks on Staten Island-bound traffic on the BQE, and then start issuing $650 violations at the end of June.

The overweight trucks are tracked by scales installed on the roadway and license plate readers that automatically issue tickets to trucks that exceed the weight limit. The city uses what’s known as a “weigh-in-motion” technology, which officials say is the first of its kind in the country.

“Trucks cause wear-and-tear on our roadways and we all pay the price through expensive repairs to our infrastructure,” Transportation Commissioner Ydanis Rodriguez said in a statement. “That is why we are expanding our crackdown on overweight vehicles on the BQE by deploying roadway weight sensors for Staten Island-bound traffic.”

According to the DOT, an average of 8,000 overweight vehicles were crossing the Queens-bound stretch of the highway each month before the city began enforcement over a year ago. When the triple cantilever was first built in the 1940s, truck weight limits were 11% lighter than current legal limits, according to city officials.

Current state law allows the DOT to use weight sensors until the end of the year, unless the state Legislature decides to renew the program. Transit officials say the technology is critical to protect the highway’s deteriorating infrastructure.

The headline and text of this story have been updated to more precisely describe the BQE's state of dilapidation.