One of the most frustrating ways to get into the borough is one step closer to being fixed, now that the Metropolitan Transportation Authority has hired a contractor to remove the phantom toll booths on the Brooklyn-bound side of the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge.
Even though one-way tolling was instituted in 1986 — giving drivers a free ride into the Borough of Kings — unmanned toll booths have remained, forcing drivers to slow from highway speeds, slide through the booths and then re-accelerate as they make their way back to the promised land on the east side of the Narrows.
The $2.5-million project kicks off in spring.
“This work is really going to change the traffic flow,” MTA spokeswoman Joyce Mulvaney said — and she means it in a good way.
The removal of most of the booths, which should be done by early 2011, is just the first step of a four-year project that will shift lanes, remove the remaining Brooklyn-bound toll booths, and build new connector ramps to and from the bridge to correct traffic problems.
“When you’re pulling stuff out of the ground, it’s going to take some time,” Mulvaney said.
The work is the most significant change to the toll plaza since the lower level of the bridge opened in 1969.
