Rockaway, Broad Channel Residents Gripe Over MTA's Plan to Put Toll on Cross Bay Bridge by Daniel Edward Rosen - NY Daily News

Read original...

Rockaway and Broad Channel residents accustomed to free passage on the Cross Bay Bridge are chafing at the Metropolitan Transportation Authority's plans to start charging them for round trips on the span, beginning next month.

"We're getting hit from all sides, and we can use a little help and a little fairness" from the MTA, said Daniel Mundy, 47, a firefighter and Broad Channel resident who uses the bridge every day. "It's going to be a hardship for a lot of people."

The MTA said that beginning next month, locals with E-ZPass will pay a round-trip fare totaling $2.26. Each successive trip will be free of charge. Nonresidents with E-ZPass will pay $1.71 per trip. No official start date has been set, said Kevin Ortiz, an MTA spokesman.

The Cross Bay Bridge rebate program, which was put into effect in 1989, originally charged Rockaway and Broad Channel residents with E-ZPass $1.03 per trip. The fee would be automatically remitted to their accounts.

But the MTA has had the rebate program in its crosshairs since it announced last December that it would have to close an $800 million budget deficit. Scrapping the rebate program would save the MTA $3.5 million per year, said Ortiz.

The move will also create the only intraborough toll in the city, said City Councilman Eric Ulrich (R-Ozone Park).

"How can we justify charging people to travel to and from their own community?" Ulrich asked. "This is not going to solve the MTA's problem."

The loss of the rebate will force Broad Channel residents to pay for "something most people take for granted," like taking their kids to school or visiting the hospital, said Jonathan Gaska, district manager of Community Board 14.

It will also affect the Rockaways beach tourism at an inopportune time during its busy summer season, said Assemblywoman Audrey Pheffer (D-Rockaway Beach).

"If you live in the Bronx, you go to the beach for free. But if you live in Queens, you have to pay to go to the beach. That's unfair," said Pheffer.

Mundy agreed about the toll's unfairness.

"Now, for me to attend the community board meetings, to meet with my local police officers, I have to pay the toll," said Mundy.

This is the latest transportation blow for the Rockaways. The money-losing Rockaway Ferry service is set to stop running July 1, barring a last-minute reprieve from the City Council.

Cross Bay Bridge Ramps to Reopen May 22nd - Queens Chronicle

Read original...

Newly reconstructed ramps to and from the Cross Bay Veterans Memorial Bridge in Rockaway will reopen to motorists on May 22, just in time for Memorial Day weekend and the kick-off of beach season.

“We promise to try and complete the ramp reconstruction work before this important weekend,” said Adrian Moshe, facility engineer for both the Cross Bay and Marine Parkway-Gil Hodges Memorial bridges. “We are pleased to turn over these like-new ramps to our customers.”

The northbound ramp off the bridge has been closed since December 2008, and the southbound ramp off the bridge has been closed since February of this year. During these periods, vehicles and buses were required to use detour routes. Buses will return to their original routes beginning Saturday, May 23.

While major work on all bridge ramps has concluded, there may be instances of isolated daily closures until the entire project comes to an end in 2010. This access is timely, since traffic increases considerably in the summer months.

Rehabilitation work on the roadway deck, ramps and pedestrian path, which re-opened last October, is part of MTA Bridges and Tunnels’ overall $56.9 million four-year deck reconstruction of the 38-year-old bridge that will continue through spring 2010.

Three decades of wear and tear in the salt water environment of Jamaica Bay made the work necessary. El Sol Contracting and Construction Corp. of Maspeth is the contractor for the job.

“This major project will improve the riding surface and generally upgrade the bridge for our customers,” said John Ryder, general manager for the agency’s two Rockaway crossings. “We thank everyone — customers and local residents — for their patience as the work has progressed.”

Statement from Council Candidate Frank Gulluscio on the Proposed Fare Hike by the MTA

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

January 21, 2009

Contact: Y. Phillip Goldfeder

718-825-2566

Statement from Council Candidate Frank Gulluscio on the Proposed Fare Hike by the MTA

"I was proud last night to join over three hundred of my friends and neighbors at the MTA public hearing in Flushing to tell the MTA that we are not going to take their fare hike proposals lightly."

"Once again, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority is expecting hard working commuters to bail them out of their financial disrepair. I am deeply troubled at the prospect of a fare hike and even more so at the proposed elimination of the resident rebate for the Cross Bay Bridge. The MTA continues to be a prime example of mismanagement and mis-allocation of public funds and their historical and only response to budgetary crises is to further tax local families."

"The Cross Bay Bridge is unique in that it is the only tolled bridge in the city that connects two communities within the same zip code. Just over ten years ago, we joined together as a concerned community to fight for our rights and we were successful. It is time once again to let our voices be heard and remind those leaders of the MTA that they are not going to balance their budget on the backs of Queens residents. Local families rely heavily on the bridge to commute to work, transport their children to and from school, shop for groceries, attend religious services, utilize their police precinct and visit their doctor."

Drivers, Pols Gear Up to Fight for Bridge Toll Break by - NY Daily News

Read original...

Rockaway and Broad Channel motorists are planning two large-scale protests this week to dissuade the MTA from abolishing toll rebates for the Cross Bay Bridge.

Queens Borough President Helen Marshall and other local leaders plan to demonstrate Monday near the toll plaza, and six busloads of residents are slated to pack Wednesday's MTA meeting in Manhattan.

The MTA is facing a budget crisis and hopes to save $3.6 million a year by rescinding the rebate.

"We fought this battle once already, and thought it was over," said Frank Harnisher, 70, a Broad Channel resident who was a vocal leader against the tolls in the 1990s. "People will only be bitter if they have to pay that toll again."

Rockaway peninsula and Broad Channel drivers with E-ZPasses are charged $1.03 every time they cross the bridge, and the fee is remitted back to them in a rebate.

The program was instituted in 1998 after decades of protests.

Broad Channel shares a post office, police precinct and firehouse with the peninsula. Many Broad Channel residents also send their kids to school in the Rockaways. For Rockaway commuters, the bridge is the only connection to mainland Queens.

"Putting a toll on this bridge is the equivalent of putting a toll in the middle of Queens Blvd.," said Assemblywoman Audrey Pheffer, who met with local civic leaders last week about the issue. "This is the only intra-borough toll in the city."

Democratic District Leader Lew Simon is organizing bus trips to voice community concerns to MTA brass.

"This is a local street that connects the same community and the same zip code," said Simon. "Everyone thinks this is a slap in our face."

The community also is planning other targeted protests to disrupt the toll plazas.

"We're going to pay in pennies and hundred-dollar bills - whatever it takes to upset their daily operations," Simon said.

Local leaders said that rescinding the rebate also would harm businesses.

"This is going to affect 120,000 people who rely on that bridge," said Dan Tubridy, who owns Pier 92 Restaurant.

"Our population has increased 20% since the toll was removed. There are people who live here who have never had to pay before."

Cross Bay Bridge Rebate May Be Voided by Tonia Cimino - The Queens Courier

Read original...

With these tough economic times, any kind of rebate or freebie helps.

But for the residents of the Rockaways and Broad Channel, a rebate in place for nearly a decade may soon be obliterated.

According to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) and MTA Bridges and Tunnels, Rockaway and Broad Channel residents with E-ZPass currently pay $1.03 each way to drive across the Cross Bay Bridge, but receive a full rebate, so “essentially it’s free.”

However, since the MTA is facing a $1.2 billion budget deficit, the Board will vote next month on eliminating the rebate.

“It’s the same thing as putting a toll booth in the middle of Queens Boulevard,” said Assemblymember Audrey Pheffer, who is herself a Far Rockaway resident.

The bridge, which connects the Rockaway Peninsula, Broad Channel and the Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge to the rest of Queens, saw 22,000 crossings daily in 2007, with numbers higher in summertime for recreational/beach-bound motorists who go to Rockaway beaches, Breezy Point and Riis Park, according to MTA figures.

Currently, non-residents with E-ZPass pay $1.55 each way; $2.50 for cash.

“Elimination of the resident rebate program at Cross Bay Bridge is, at this point, a proposed cut that the MTA Board will vote on next month,” read an MTA statement. “The MTA’s proposed budget addresses significant budget gaps in 2009 and beyond due to plummeting tax revenues, higher fuel costs and elevated debt service obligations. The MTA awaits the release of the Ravitch Commission’s recommendations in December and hopes they will be implemented to restore financial stability to the MTA.”

And though agency officials say that if, in fact, the Board were to vote yes to the proposal, it would not go into effect until mid-year 2009, many, including Pheffer and Community Board 14 Chair Dolores Orr are already worried.

“It’s an unfair tax on people living in the area,” said Pheffer. “The bridge is a bridge going from Queens to Queens.”

“It’s shocking,” said Orr. “It took so many years for us to get people to realize it’s paying to bring your children to school, go to the police or fire departments, supermarkets, post office,” etc.

“I have a friend whose children go to the gifted program in Howard Beach and the mother drives,” she continued. “[If the proposal passes] it will cost her to bring her children to a school within the same district.”

Of the rebate, Orr said, “We’ve been fortunate - it’s been 10 years and it has made a huge difference in the lives of people and the businesses.”

She says that, sans the rebate, businesses may suffer, as residents will face the choice of crossing the bridge or going into Howard Beach for even basic services.

“People should be able to shop in their own community,” said Orr.

“I’m hoping that when we get up to Albany,” said Pheffer, “we can discuss some way to relieve the deficit for the MTA. It’s very difficult times and they’re [the MTA] making it more difficult. I understand they need the money, we just have to find a [better] way.”

Improved Pedestrian Path Opens on Cross Bay Bridge - Queens Chronicle

Read original...

The new, improved walkway on the Cross Bay Veterans Memorial Bridge, which runs over Jamaica Bay and links Broad Channel and the Rockaways, has opened to the public after nearly a year of reconstruction.

Adrian Moshe, left, of the MTA, Jonathan Gaska of C.B. 14, right foreground, and MTA staff at a ribbon cutting ceremony for the bridge’s improved walkway. (photo courtesy of the MTA)

Work on the popular pedestrian and cyclist crossing was part of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s Bridges and Tunnels’ $56.9 million deck rehabilitation project, which is expected to continue through spring 2010.

"We know the walkway provides important access for the community, which is why we provided free daily shuttle bus service during the closure,” said Adrian Moshe, facility engineer of both the Cross Bay and Marine Parkway Gil Hodges Memorial bridges.

To make the journey across the pedestrian path of the 38-year-old bridge more pleasant, Bridges and Tunnels reconstructed its 10-foot-wide sidewalk, paved the walkway, upgraded drainage and installed new lighting, concrete barriers, railing and a fire stand pipe.

The rest of the project, funded through the MTA’s capital plan, is the rehabilitation of the bridge’s deck and ramps, made necessary by three decades of wear and tear in the salt-water environment of Jamaica Bay.

The walkway portion of the project began as soon as El Sol Contracting & Construction Corp. of Maspeth was selected to do the work last summer.

As the rest of the project continues, the agency plans to regularly communicate with local community groups and elected officials, briefing them on every phase. It most recently met with area residents and business owners to discuss plans at a Community Board 14 meeting this summer.

NY Daily News: Work to Start on Cross Bay Bridge bY Warren Woodberry Jr. ...

Driving toward a smoother and safer commute, city work crews next week will kick off a $57 million face-lift of the Cross Bay Veterans Memorial Bridge.

The three-year project will feature a newly-paved 3,000-foot asphalt roadway, concrete barriers, railings along the sidewalk and the replacement of ramps that provide access to the Rockaway Peninsula.

"It's 37 [years old] and it needs work," said Catherine Sweeney, a spokeswoman for Metropolitan Transportation Authority Bridges and Tunnels.

"The work is necessary to maintain the bridge in a state of good repair."

Construction will require at least one lane closure in each direction on the bridge, which connects Broad Channel and the Rockaway Peninsula over Jamaica Bay.

Ramps will also be temporarily closed, but only in the off-season, not between Labor Day and Memorial Day.

Commuters - some 7.3 million drive over the bridge each year - should plan to add a few extra minutes to their commutes during the project, officials said.

Community Board 14 will offer help with ramp detours to minimize inconvenience during closures.

"Our concerns are the beach seasons for people who are not familiar with the area," said Board 14 district manager Jonathan Gaska.

Gaska noted that the City Department of Transportation would provide traffic agents to direct the flow of traffic at peak hours.

The community board has also discussed a hurricane evacuation plan with the City Office of Emergency Management, Gaska said.

Two bridge lanes should remain open at all times, he said.

"After 37 years of wear and tear in a salt-water environment, the work on the bridge is necessary to ensure that motorists cross it in safety and comfort," said state Senate Minority Leader Malcolm Smith (D-Queens), who announced the construction plans this month.

The original Cross Bay Bridge, a low-level drawbridge, was built in 1939 by the New York City Parkway Authority.

It was replaced in 1970 by the Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority (now MTA Bridges and Tunnels) by the Cross Bay Veterans Memorial Bridge, a fixed-level bridge high enough for boats to pass beneath.

wwoodberry@nydailynews.com