New York's Brooklyn-Queens Expressway Is Crumbling
The Brooklyn-Queens Expressway, a section of I-278 that runs between the two New York boroughs, is falling apart. No part of the so-called highway is particularly good to drive on — it's a parking lot any time before or after about 3 a.m. — but one section in particular is a nightmare: A multi-level cantilevered area that cuts through Brooklyn Heights. It has the worst traffic, the worst drivers, and the worst structural integrity. It's gotten so bad, in fact, that by next year it'll be banned from carrying trucks altogether.
The cantilever system, like all of New York's worst features, was the brainchild of one of the city's most hated individuals: Robert Moses, possibly the only urban planner universally loathed enough to show up as a villain in fiction as well as reality. The layout saves space by stacking alternating directions of the highway atop each other, but exposure to the elements has weakened the structure towards a crisis point — a crisis that no one really knows how to solve. Watch Half As Interesting break it down with some great visuals:
Read more: What's The Point Of Mid-Grade Gasoline?
The decay of the BQE has been common knowledge amongst New York's decision makers for years — a steel-supported overhang that gets coated in road salt annually was never going to last forever — but no one's yet come up with a better way to ferry trucks between Brooklyn and Queens at highway speeds. Of course, those decision makers may forget that "highway speeds" is a standard the BQE already fails to meet, especially through (and approaching) the cantilever section. Having personally baked on that road many times, in full moto gear, I can confirm that the BQE's through speeds may well be lower than the adjacent side streets.
By next year, the BQE will be too structurally unsound to support the semi trucks that are supposed to justify its existence. It already can't meet the speeds that are supposedly so important for it to maintain. Why do we bother keeping it around at all?
Read the original article on Jalopnik.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
9 hours ago
- Yahoo
How A Shop In The UK Beat The Nürburgring's Van Lap Record In A Diesel Volkswagen
None of Jalopnik's full-time staffers have kids, and yet, we're still about as pro-van as a transportation site gets. I mean, what can I say? They're just so darn practical. Maybe you don't put much stock in Nurburgring lap times, but van lap times? Now that's some Very Important News. For the last several years, the record to beat was Guy Martin's time of 9:28 in a 700-horsepower Ford Transit Super Van. Now, that record has been beaten, too, and Road & Track recently talked with Dan Silvester, the guy who recently lapped the 'Ring in 8:27. In a diesel Volkswagen van. As you can imagine, Silvester's Volkswagen Caddy is a far cry from the stock Ford Transit that Sabine Schmitz set a time of 10:12 on "Top Gear" back in 2005. Still, it isn't quite as powerful as you might assume. There's no electric powertrain yanked out of a wrecked Tesla or supercharged V8. Instead, it's just a 2.0-liter four-cylinder diesel engine that makes 356 hp and 470 pound-feet of torque. The modifications required to turn it into a Nürburgring record-holder came from Darkside Developments, a British tuning shop that specializes in diesels. As Road & Track put it: At a glance, the Volkswagen Caddy is a utilitarian work van, but Darkside Developments's expertise turned the part-VW Touran, part-VW Golf machine into a proper track car. Upgrades range from a Wavetrac limited-slip differential up front and KW Clubsport suspension all around to a 4Motion AWD conversion kit from an Audi, Porsche Cayenne brakes, and the requisite bits of interior racing kit. In other words, it's a shell of its former self, much like the Ford Transit that Martin took into battle back in 2021. Read more: These Supercars Lose Value So Quickly, They're Almost A Steal According to Silvester, part of the reason you don't see more extensive aero mods on the outside of the van has less to do with keeping it anonymous and more to do with achieving a higher top speed. As he told Road & Track: I don't know if it's just the shape of the van itself because it had plenty of power, and, if you put that power plant in a Golf, it'll probably do 160 mph. But the van just really didn't want to go much more. I think we got up to 140 mph on the back straight. We had no aero on the van at all either. We didn't put any splitter or a spoiler on it because we thought we wanted to use all the power we've got without causing too much drag, and we didn't want to ruin the profile of the van and keep it looking like a van. Despite not being able to hit the top speed they may have liked, they still smashed Guy Martin's time by a full minute. That said, it doesn't technically count as a new official lap record because it was set on a public track day, and the lap time wasn't officially confirmed. They may have used a VBox system to time the lap, so there's no reason to believe Silvester didn't lap the 'Ring as quickly as he claims, but still. You have to jump through all the necessary hoops if your want your Nurburgring van lap record to be officially official. It's also a fascinating interview, so be sure to head over to Road & Track to read the whole thing. Or just give them a click so Hearst knows you want to see more van content. Because, in a world full of SUVs, the car world deserves more van content. If you want more details on the build, you can also take a look at that here. Want more like this? Join the Jalopnik newsletter to get the latest auto news sent straight to your inbox... Read the original article on Jalopnik.
Yahoo
11 hours ago
- Yahoo
Mercedes Electric Semi Truck Delivers Backwards Load To Break New World Record
This week Mercedes-Benz Trucks set a new record for driving a load over the road entirely in reverse, as well as a closed course record for continuous reversing. The driver, Marco Hellgrewe, described as a German Armed Forces officer and "truck enthusiast" was picked to reverse the brand new all-electric Mercedes-Benz eActros 600 to set the records, and absolutely delivered. The day began at the Motorsport Arena Oschersleben where Marco pushed the truck in reverse for a new record of 124.7 kilometers without stopping. Once that record had been achieved, Marco drove out onto the public streets, still in reverse, and drove over 30 kilometers from Oschersleben to the new Daimler Truck Global Parts Center in Halberstadt. The key to breaking a new record in reversing a tractor trailer is taking your time and having a police escort. The 30 kilometer drive in reverse took around two hours to complete, meaning the truck was travelling at just under 10 miles per hour for the entirety of the journey. "For me, a big dream has come true: to drive a long distance in reverse on public roads with an all-electric truck and semitrailer. And even being able to do it with the electric flagship eActros 600 from Mercedes-Benz Trucks – which has now become my second home, so to speak," says Hellgrewe. Read more: These Are The Most Annoying Things About Your Cars This isn't the first time a reverse record has been broken in recent years, though it's probably the biggest and heaviest of the ones we have covered. Back in 2018 Audi and ABT Schaeffler built an electric RS3 that went 130 miles per hour in reverse, which was absolutely trounced by the Rimac Nevera in 2023 setting a reverse top speed of 171.34 miles per hour. The prior tractor trailer reverse distance record was set by an Irish farmer in 2017, running almost 21 kilometers backing up. Mercedes-Benz Trucks worked with the mayor of Halberstadt for this project with both parties seeking attention for road safety, electrification, and "truck driver image." Truck drivers are essential to the mechanics of everyday life, bringing the things we need to live from wherever they're made to wherever we are. The job is a tough one with long hours and challenging working conditions, and truckers are vital to any functional economy. The talent that it takes to drive a big rig in the tight confines of any European city must be commended, but to do the whole thing in reverse must be on a completely different level. I'm seriously impressed, how about you? Want more like this? Join the Jalopnik newsletter to get the latest auto news sent straight to your inbox... Read the original article on Jalopnik.
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Yahoo
EV-Fueled Inferno Forces Crew To Abandon Ship Carrying 3,000 Cars Across Pacific
If fire departments on land have problems unleashing the torrent of water needed to extinguish a single burning EV, the crew of a ship doesn't stand a chance against hundreds of flaming lithium-ion batteries. A cargo ship carrying around 3,000 vehicles across the Pacific Ocean caught fire on Tuesday. The Morning Midas, a 600-foot cargo ship, was in the middle of a voyage from Yantai, China to Lazaro Cardenas, Mexico when the fire broke out. Zodiac Maritime, the ship's London-based operator, noted that smoke was first spotted on a deck carrying 800 electric vehicles. Once the blaze got out of control, the vessel's 22 crew members abandoned ship via lifeboat. With the ship roughly 300 southwest of Alaska, the U.S. Coast Guard dispatched aircrews and a cutter to respond to the emergency, according to Bloomberg. The evacuating crew on the lifeboat was transferred by the USCG to one of the three other merchants at the scene, helping to fight the fire. Zodiac Maritime wouldn't comment on which automaker's vehicles were burning to a crisp. This is an ongoing story, and we will update when we know more about the fate of the Morning Midas. Read more: These V6 Engines Put The LS1 V8 To Shame The inferno on Morning Midas will remind many of the Felicity Ace fire in 2022. The 650-foot cargo vessel burst into flames while carrying 4,000 cars built by Audi, Bentley, Lamborghini, Porsche and Volkswagen. Despite the hope of towing the ship to port once the fire was put out, Felicia Ace sank to the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean. The lithium-ion batteries fitted to the EV onboard kept the fire burning much longer than expected. One of the cars that ended up on the seafloor was a Porsche Boxster Spyder ordered by Matt Farah, host of The Smoking Tire. He was just glad that the ship's crew escaped unharmed. Fighting EV fires in the middle of an ocean is a tall task for any crew. It often takes tens of thousands of gallons of water to douse a burning lithium-ion battery. While it might seem straightforward to put a pump over the side and use saltwater to put out the flames, it's not a viable option. The salt in ocean water is electrically conductive and would fuel an ongoing blaze. Current guidelines for crews emphasize early detection and limiting water use by letting EVs burn while containing any potential spreading. We're going to need better ways to fight battery fires if electric vehicles are going to be far more numerous. Want more like this? Join the Jalopnik newsletter to get the latest auto news sent straight to your inbox... Read the original article on Jalopnik.
