QueensWay is a project that has existed mostly in concept for the past 13 years. The plan, similar to Manhattan’s High Line, would transform the long-defunct Rockaway Beach Branch of the Long Island Rail Road into a green space with room for pedestrians, cyclists and programming. Once complete, it would stretch 3.5 miles from Rego Park to Ozone Park.

Now, the money is there to build.

“This is an amazing opportunity —  $117 million to invest in New York City parks,” deputy mayor for operations Meera Joshi said in an interview Wednesday on NY1’s Mornings On 1.

The $117 million grant from the federal Department of Transportation, which was announced this week, came after lobbying from New York’s senators. The plan also has strong support from the Adams administration, which already put $35 million toward the first phase of QueensWay, and an array of elected officials, who see it as a boon for a borough with notoriously little park space.

“It’s a linear park, so it allows for recreation activity,” Joshi said. “It connects 93,000 people to green space, as well as 10 schools.”

But not everyone is onboard.

“It’s truly disappointing,” Rick Horan, the executive director of QueensLink, said.

QueensLink is an alternative plan that would turn the old railway into a new subway line. That plan has also drawn support from other elected officials, who say a park and rail line can co-exist.

“Let us do both of these things,” Public Advocate Jumaane Williams said at a City Hall rally last September.

But the MTA, which would have to lead the project, has shown little interest. And with Wednesday’s announcement, which provides funding for a nine-acre section of QueensWay, a subway line seems increasingly unlikely.

“It doesn’t necessarily prohibit future investment in rail along the same line. The two don’t directly conflict,” Joshi said.

Horan took a different view.

“They are claiming that the park does not preclude transit, but it does,” he said. “It’s a skinny strip of land. You cannot build a park on this property and then later decide to build a railroad, a subway, without ripping up the park.”

Queens Borough President Donovan Richards saw only upside Wednesday.

“We are not going to turn down federal dollars,” he said in an interview. “So we have done a heck of a lot of work to bring both sides together. But I’ve always been clear that if we get funding, we’re going to carry on the mission to make sure that we leave Queens better than we found it, and that we grow our open space.”