With the city still years away from taking action to shore up the triple cantilever section of the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway, officials hope expanding a crackdown on overweight trucks will reduce wear and tear on the aging roadway.

The city has already been using roadway sensors that can weigh a truck while in motion to issue violations for overweight trucks traveling toward Queens on the BQE.

What You Need To Know

  • The city’s Department of Transportation has already been using in-road sensors to catch overweight trucks in the Queens-bound lanes of the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway

  • Now, the agency will start using the sensors to weigh trucks heading toward Staten Island

  • For 90 days, trucks will get a warning, but starting July 22, drivers will face a $650 fine if a vehicle is overweight

Starting Monday, they’re going to use those sensors to look for trucks violating weight limits in the expressway’s Staten Island-bound lanes.

While those sensors are being turned on now, the program won’t issue fines for Staten Island-bound trucks immediately.

There will be a 90-day warning period. But starting on June 22, trucks caught violating the weight limits will be subject to a $650 fine.

The city’s Department of Transportation says the sensors work. There has been a 60% reduction in overweight vehicles heading toward Queens since the program began.

Before using the sensor, the DOT found an average of 7,920 overweight vehicles heading Queens-bound each month.

In the first year of using the new technology, that dropped to a monthly average of 3,041 overweight vehicles, according to the agency.

The use of the sensors to issue violations was authorized by a state law passed back in 2021, and that law expires at the end of this year.

This means that unless Albany takes action to extend the program before the end of this year’s legislative session in June, the program would have to end on Dec. 1.