The Kew Gardens Interchange is the confluence of the Van Wyck Expressway, Grand Central Parkway, and Jackie Robinson Parkway. This three-level interchange also includes Union Turnpike and Queens Boulevard.
In addition to the redesign of the interchange alignments, highway connections, and the associated bridge engineering (reconstruction of 15 structures), H&H’s scope included highway and traffic studies, operational improvements, environmental screening, as well as the associated WZTC, lighting, and drainage design.
The bridge work involved the replacement of structurally deficient mainline viaducts and additional structures (total of 140,000 SF of structure) and rehabilitating the remaining bridges. Key capacity improvements include extending auxiliary lanes on the Van Wyck Expressway. Also, the project interfaces with an NYC Transit subway station and transit rail storage yard, and a rail bridge. The project included the design of a new two-story maintenance building.
H&H developed bridge concepts and introduced innovative strategies to reduce costs, optimize physical site constraints and demanding traffic volumes, and accelerate construction. Design documents provided temporary construction and modular construction techniques. Broad community outreach and consensus-building, as well as comprehensive NYC agency coordination, are critical to the continued success of this work. Coordinating with Parks, NYCDOT, and OCMC was particularly important.