The New York State Department of Transportation recently completed key main line work on the $1.4 billion Van Wyck Expressway project; opening new managed-use lanes for taxis and high-occupancy vehicles in both directions between the Kew Gardens Interchange and Atlantic Avenue and John F. Kennedy International Airport.
[Above image by NYSDOT]
A centerpiece of the project, the new managed-use lanes will effectively operate as high-occupancy vehicle or HOV lanes, open to private vehicles, taxis, and for-hire vehicles with a driver and at least one passenger, as well as buses.
Those new lanes, which opened on October 23, are one of several new features and safety enhancements added to the Van Wyck Expressway as part of the project, which will be considered fully complete once work to rehabilitate nearby service roads is finished later in 2026.
“For years, commuters have navigated seemingly endless construction and delays along this critical artery, but today, with the conclusion of major work, New York enters a new era of faster, safer travel on the Van Wyck,” noted Governor Kathy Hochul (D) in a statement. “These new lanes for high-occupancy vehicles are among several enhancements that will remove the headaches that have long been associated with travel on this busy highway and help ensure that travelers headed to and from JFK get where they need to go hassle-free.”
[Editor’s note: The governor also recently celebrated the completion of major work on a $49 million project that reconstructed an approximately one-mile stretch of U.S. Route 20, also known as Transit Road, in the towns of West Seneca, Elma, and Orchard Park in Erie County near Buffalo. That project, completed on budget and ahead of schedule, included replacement of the nearly 100-year-old bridge carrying the roadway over Cazenovia Creek.]
“The Van Wyck Expressway is a vital link that connects New York City to JFK Airport — and by extension the rest of the world — and it has long been in need of a substantial investment to alleviate traffic and provide better access to the airport and surrounding communities,” added Marie Therese Dominguez, NYSDOT commissioner. “We have been working full speed ahead to transform this highway and the results are tangible, which means safer travel, more resiliency against flooding and extreme weather, less congestion and fewer trucks on local streets.”
In addition to new managed-use lanes, the highway geometry was also reconfigured to provide longer entrance and exit ramps that prevent queueing on the highway and reduce weaving. Additionally, drainage systems were upgraded to bolster resiliency to severe weather and state-of-the art traffic management technology was installed, the agency noted.
The agency added that the Van Wyck Expressway project – which began in 2020 – builds on earlier work by NYSDOT to reduce congestion and improve access to JFK Airport along the entire corridor, including the Long Island Expressway, the Grand Central Parkway, the $739 million modernization of the Kew Gardens Interchange, which was completed in December of 2022, and a $124 million project that rehabilitated a key viaduct along the Van Wyck Expressway between 57th Avenue and the Long Island Rail Road in Queens, which was completed in February of 2024.
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