This just in (literally): The Department of Transportation has just told us that Brooklyn-bound drivers should avoid the Brooklyn Bridge at all costs this weekend!
The fabled span itself will be fine — but the always-snarled access ramp from the southbound FDR Drive will be completely closed from 11 pm tonight until 6 am on Monday.
The closure will allow workers to “continue the replacement of the existing concrete deck and the removal of temporary steel joint covers, which was begun two weeks ago but was delayed by inclement weather,” the agency said in a statement that we didn’t receive until very late on Thursday night.
During the 55-hour closure, the agency offered these recommendations:
• Motorists may exit the southbound FDR Drive at the Manhattan Civic Center/Pace University off-ramp (Exit 2), turn left at Pearl Street and right to access the ramp onto the Brooklyn Bridge.
• Drivers may also stay on the FDR Drive — which is likely to be a parking lot — to South Street (Exit 1), make a U-turn at the Whitehall/Staten Island Ferry terminal, and return to the northbound FDR Drive to the Brooklyn-bound ramp.
• There’s also the Manhattan and Williamsburg bridges, you know.
In addition to all this fun for Brooklyn-bound drivers, Manhattan-bound bridge drivers will notice that the Pearl Street off-ramp will be closed all weekend.
The construction is part of a $508-million project to rehabilitate the bridge’s ramps and approaches and paint its steel components to prevent corrosion, the agency said.
More on that paint, by the way, will show up soon on BrooklynPaper.com (not to tip off our competitors or anything), so check back. Enjoy the weekend!
Reach the bureau at newsroom@cnglocal.com.
