Dear Editor,

I can’t believe in the 10/28 edition of the Queens Chronicle they are still talking about the need to replace the Grand Ave Bridge. The bridge was just about obsolete when it was built in 1903 at the dawning of the automobile and truck industry; before that it was just horse and wagons. So, for more than 100 years cars, trucks and buses have had to squeeze by each other and sometimes get stuck or as the article mentions how civil many of the drivers are because they wait for a truck to pass before they go. Drivers shouldn’t have to worry if they are going to make it over the bridge. I have seen occasions when trucks and buses have gotten stuck and have had to back down along with a lot of cars and trucks.

The article states that the Community Board Manager 5 says the bridge is on the radar of the Division of Bridges and that it will be expensive and just the design phase could take two years.This seems like a long time for something that should have been done years ago.

This bridge connects industrial areas of Maspeth and Brooklyn and is a heavily trafficked thoroughfare. The MTA also has a bus depot nearby. Why should it take so long to get this bridge replaced? Where is our infrastructure planning and priorities in this city? In the time we are waiting for a design of the new bridge China has built probably a hundred bridges over rivers and canyons and we can’t get one over little old Newtown Creek.

Richard Polgar
Maspeth