Good morning. It’s Thursday. Today we’ll look at the potential damage to roadways in the city, as electric-powered trucks become more popular. We’ll also look at a plan to improve drainage infrastructure in a low-lying section of Brooklyn that often floods. One more thing: The candidates for mayor held their second debate last night. You can read our coverage here. Before the debate, Zohran Mamdani said that, if elected, he would ask Jessica Tisch to stay on as police commissioner.
Kaan Ozbay is a transportation engineering expert at New York University who was talking about the damage trucks inflict on the roads they travel. Suddenly, he sounded like a physician talking about a patient. “Imagine somebody has heart disease,” he said, “and then you make them eat worse food. I mean, they’re not going to die tomorrow, but the effect is cumulative.” To Ozbay and his colleague Jingqin Gao at the Tandon School of Engineering, the patient in question is heavily traveled roads in New York City, like the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway; the Cross Bronx Expressway from the George Washington Bridge to the Bruckner Interchange; the Williamsburg Bridge; and the Hugh L. Carey and the Queens Midtown Tunnels. The bad food is not the potholes or the traffic slowdowns. It is too-heavy trucks — and, looking into the not-too-distant future, electric-powered trucks. Gao said she and Ozbay wanted to gauge whether the city’s infrastructure was ready for what was coming. E-trucks are typically heavier than conventional long-haul trucks, according to data for a paper they wrote with Zerun Liu, a graduate student at N.Y.U. E-trucks can weigh 2,000 pounds more than a comparable diesel-powered vehicle, they said, and some e-trucks weigh as much as 9,000 pounds more. Heavier e-trucks, higher road repair costsThe researchers warn that the added weight will pose new challenges for the city’s infrastructure — and that roads and bridges will cost more to repair. The researchers projected that e-trucks could add to the $4.16 million in damage already caused by overweight vehicles every year in New York City. How much more will repairs cost? By their estimates, nearly 4.5 percent by 2030 and nearly 12 percent by 2050. The damage would differ from borough to borough, with Manhattan facing the most and Staten Island the least. The researchers also say that bridges, which are especially sensitive to increases in gross vehicle weight, would account for 65 percent of the additional repair costs. E-trucks account for only a tiny fraction of truck sales in the United States, according to the International Energy Agency. But the paper from Tandon researchers predicts that there will be 40 percent more heavy-duty e-trucks on the roads in the city by 2030 than there are now, and twice as many by 2050. And, as with the heart patient Ozbay mentioned, the damage to the roads would be cumulative. The Tandon researchers are careful to say they are not taking issue with the environmental benefits of e-trucks. Experts generally agree that electric vehicles are more climate-friendly than those that run on gasoline or diesel fuels. The researchers’ data suggests that “widespread electrification” of trucks could prevent roughly 2,032 tons of carbon dioxide from going into the atmosphere each year. But heavier trucks do require larger batteries and, when they need a charge, more electricity. Coping with the extra weightTruckers would no doubt bristle if regulators required e-trucks to limit their capacity so that they weighed no more than their diesel-powered counterparts. “If the truck is heavy on its own, and if you load it less than what’s allowed in a regular truck,” the trucker is put in “a disadvantaged position, because they want to carry as much as they can,” Ozbay said. “And these guys, they want to carry as much as they can, you know — especially in the city, because getting in and out of the city is difficult.” The researchers point to weigh-in-motion sensors, like those now checking trucks on the B.Q.E. as a way to deal with heavy-duty e-trucks. The sensors, essentially electronic scales under the pavement, can spot trucks that weigh more than regulations permit. The B.Q.E. is a particular concern because a study panel concluded several years ago that the triple-cantilever stretch along the Brooklyn waterfront was crumbling. The city says that overweight vehicles on the B.Q.E. have decreased by 60 percent since the sensors were switched on. As for e-trucks, a spokesman for the Department of Transportation noted that “all trucks, running on all fuel types,” must abide by weight regulations. “As emerging technologies contribute to increased vehicle weights, automated enforcement technology will continue to be an essential tool we can use to protect critical infrastructure.” The researchers recommend replacing the current system of flat permit fees for trucks with weight-based charges. Such a change could mean installing more weight-monitoring sensors, especially in Manhattan. WEATHER Expect a sunny sky and temperatures in the low 60s. At night, the temperatures will drop to the mid-40s. ALTERNATE-SIDE PARKING In effect through Nov. 4 (Election Day). The latest Metro news
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The Hole is a section of Brooklyn that is only a few feet above sea level — so low that the area can flood when there’s only a modest downpour. Septic tanks there have been known to overflow. The city is proposing a plan to add infrastructure for drainage, and other improvements, there and in the nearby neighborhoods of East New York in Brooklyn and Lindenwood in Queens. The idea is to install a new sewer system and elevate some streets. Mayor Eric Adams announced the $146 million plan on Tuesday, saying it would upgrade four different areas in different ways: Along Jewel Street in the Hole, the drainage issues would be addressed. In East New York, a large city-owned lot would be turned into a mixed-used complex with affordable housing. Along Conduit Avenue and Linden Boulevard, new traffic safety and public transit improvements would be introduced, along with some development, including housing. The plan was the result of two years of workshops and meetings with community groups, residents and city officials. My colleague Hilary Howard writes that it is far from a done deal — the plan must go through land-use and environmental reviews that could take years before construction even begins. Another potential hurdle: The proposal will have to be embraced by the mayor who takes office when Adams steps down in January. The Hole would appear to be a candidate for something called “managed retreat,” in which the government buys out homes and lets a developed area return to nature. That is not the approach the plan takes. The city wants to preserve the neighborhood through a combination of buyouts and home upgrades. The buyouts would give residents the option to sell their homes to the government before, not after, a natural disaster — in contrast, say, to buyouts on Staten Island covered with federal disaster relief recovery money after Hurricane Sandy in 2012. Residents of the Hole who stayed put could receive financial assistance to retrofit their homes. METROPOLITAN DIARY Intriguing sight
Dear Diary: I was strolling down MacDougal Street just after the most severe part of the Covid-19 pandemic lockdown. I was glad to see that people were out and about, with some sitting on chairs and benches. Among the most intriguing was a woman with a white cockatoo perched on her shoulder. I approached her and asked whether I could talk to her bird. “He never learned to speak,” she said, “but sure, say hello.” “Hello, hello,” I said. The parrot responded by barking, a real yip like a small dog. “Oh yeah,” the woman said. “We used to live with a Yorkie.” — Judith Miller Illustrated by Agnes Lee. Tell us your New York story here and read more Metropolitan Diary here. Glad we could get together here. See you tomorrow. — J.B. P.S. Here’s today’s Mini Crossword and Spelling Bee. You can find all our puzzles here. Steven Moity and Ed Shanahan contributed to New York Today. You can reach the team at nytoday@nytimes.com. Sign up here to get this newsletter in your inbox.
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