DEIS comments
Use the hearing notice’s filing instructions and deadline when draft environmental review opens.
BMT review informationWrite a comment
A concern becomes stronger
when you put it in writing.
You know your neighborhood. Describe what you experience, ask a clear question, and name the change or protection you want.
Put it in writing → Submit it → Save it
Start with
one clear concern.
- Introduce yourself. Say how you are connected to the area: you may live, work, study, run a business, or care for someone here. You can mention how long you have been part of the neighborhood.
- Locate the concern. Name the block, intersection, building, route, or study page.
- Make it personal. Explain how the issue affects your daily life, your family, your work, or people you care for. A specific experience helps show why your concern matters.
- Ask clearly. Connect that experience to the analysis, answer, design change, or protection you want.
- Add what you have. Include photographs, observations, records, or relevant sources.
You do not need to commission your own technical study to ask a useful question.
“I live near Columbia Street and walk to school with my child. I’m concerned about truck traffic near the crossings we use. Please study how overlapping BMT and BQE construction could affect those crossings and identify protections for people walking.”Example only—use your own connection, experience, and request.
A BMT concern to put in the record
Support all-port. Require port-first at a minimum.
Explain why all-port matters: ask for a water in, water out freight network, electric equipment, cold storage, good-paying union career pathways, and measurable reductions in neighborhood truck impacts. Find the Blue Highway evidence and examples →
Connect this request to why the working waterfront matters to you. Ask the BMT environmental review to study what happens if the replacement pier is delayed, denied, redesigned, or unfunded, and compare the full 122-acre all-port alternative. Ask ESD to put enforceable protections in the General Project Plan and implementation agreements.
I support an all-port future for all 122 acres and a fair study of that alternative. At a minimum, no housing construction, conversion of port land, or demolition that reduces working port capacity until the replacement port is fully permitted, funded, built, and independently verified as operational. Protect existing operations throughout. This minimum does not mean I support shrinking the port.
Use your own words and experience. This is a BMT request. Send it to your representatives now, then submit through the relevant BMT review or permit notice when its comment window opens.
Make sure it reaches the record
Choose the right submission channel.
If your concern affects both projects, submit it to each project’s formal review. Save the text, attachments, and confirmation.
GPP comments
Use ESD’s notice for the initially adopted plan, public hearing, and written comments.
ESD public noticesSubmit by November 23, 2026
Ask DOT to study three lanes versus two. The City proposes keeping two lanes in each direction after rehabilitation. We urge residents to ask for a full comparison with three lanes, including traffic and truck diversion on streets in Columbia Street Waterfront, Red Hook, Cobble Hill, Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn Heights, and adjacent neighborhoods, congestion, crossing safety, emergency access, air quality, noise, and overlapping BMT construction. Describe how the current two-lane configuration has affected your own daily life, and ask DOT to evaluate those effects and explain its conclusions.
Ask for fewer construction trucks, too. Ask DOT to study moving materials and equipment by barge and coordinating BMT and BQE work to reduce truck trips through nearby neighborhoods. See what the Blue Highway could carry →
Comment on what the BQE Central environmental study should examine. Include “BQE Central draft scope — CEQR 26DOT006K” in your subject line.
1. Prepare your BQE comment.
2. Email it to BQECentral@dot.nyc.gov.
3. Save a copy of your sent email and any acknowledgment. Copy our community inbox if you wish.
Creating a draft here does not submit it. Send it to DOT before the deadline. Include your name and share only personal details you want in the public record.
Other ways to submit
Speak at the November 10 or 12 scoping meeting, or use the online comment form linked from DOT’s project page (limited to 512 characters; email allows a fuller comment). October information events do not replace a formal submission.
You can also mail comments to:
NYC Department of Transportation
Division of Bridges – BQE Central Project Team
Attention: Albert Silvestri
55 Water Street, 5th Floor
New York, NY 10041
Allow enough delivery time to meet the deadline.
Keep advocating between review windows
Reach your representatives.
Find city and state officials, project teams, and financing contacts together in one place—with direct emails, phone numbers, and official contact pages.
Open the contact directory →
Prepare your comment.
Use the questions below to prepare a draft in your own words. Review it, save a copy, and follow the agency’s instructions to submit it.
Your draft is ready to review.
Next: choose the correct submission channel below, follow its instructions, and save confirmation. Closing this page clears your notes.