At a September meeting of Brooklyn's Community Board 6, a New York City DOT official said plans to replace the elevated Gowanus Expressway with a tunnel were "dead."

It was unclear whether the official, who was presenting plans for rebuilding the Hamilton Avenue Bridge -- a project that would be considerably affected by the various schemes for the Expressway under consideration -- was reflecting a city policy to head off serious consideration of a Gowanus tunnel or a transportation agency consensus in opposition to the tunnel, or was simply misinformed. According to the Brooklyn Heights Press, a NY State DOT spokesperson present at the Community Board meeting disavowed the city official's statement. State Senator Martin Connor has asked the State DOT to help win an agreement from the city to hold off on any plan for the Hamilton Ave. Bridge until the future of the Gowanus is settled.

That could be some time. The State DOT has pushed the completion date for its Gowanus reconstruction draft environmental impact statement off to 2002. It has also convened a Gowanus tunnel technical advisory panel. Settlement of a lawsuit against the State DOT and the Federal Highway Administration (see MTR #153) over the project's planning procedures by community and transportation reform groups is still being negotiated.