Grand Central Parkway

The Grand Central Parkway begins at Interstate 278 and the Robert F. Kennedy (Triboro) Bridge in the Astoria section of north Queens. The parkway initially carries I-278 southward from the suspension bridge to the Brooklyn Queens Expressway (BQE). Interstate 278 turns southward onto the BQE toward Brooklyn while Grand Central Parkway (GCP) extends east to LaGuardia Airport (LGA) and Flushing.

Once at Flushing and East Elmhurst, the GCP turns southward parallel to Interstate 678 (Van Wyck Expressway) through Flushing Meadows-Corona Park to the Kew Gardens and Jamaica neighborhoods of Queens. The two routes provide the major access roads to John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK). The exchange joining the GCP with the Van Wyck Expressway and Jackie Robinson Parkway is one of the more congested within New York City. There traffic partitions from JFK Airport for Manhattan via the GCP north and the northern suburbs via Interstate 678 north.

East of Jamaica, Grand Central Parkway travels to Utopia, Hollis and Queens Village en route to a four level interchange with Interstate 295 (Clearview Expressway). The parkway travels below grade along a portion of this stretch with an expressway type design. Continuing from the top level of the exchange with I-295, the GCP advances east to meet Cross Island Parkway before exiting the city as Northern Parkway at North New Hyde Park.

Construction on Grand Central Parkway began in July 1931 at the Queens and Nassau County line. With a direct transition onto the Northern State Parkway, nine miles of the GCP opened to traffic between Kew Gardens and Glen Oaks by July 1933. Extension of the parkway northward through Flushing to the Triborough Bridge followed with a July 1936 opening. Part of the highway was built along fill at Flushing Bay. A cloverleaf interchange opened further south at the cross roads with Horace Harding Boulevard by 1939.1

Expansion of the GCP occurred in the 1960s with widening of the parkway from four to eight lanes between the Triborough Bridge and Kew Gardens, and from four to six lanes from Kew Gardens east to Glen Oaks. The $40 million project was completed by 1971. A proposal to upgrade Grand Central Parkway to freeway standards followed in 1971. Considered briefly as Interstate 478, the GCP would be upgraded to a ten lane freeway, with four lanes for trucks/buses between I-278 (Brooklyn-Queens Expressway) and I-678 (Whitestone Expressway). Heated opposition resulted in then Governor Nelson Rockefeller withdrawing his proposal after just two months. A later change followed in 2003 with the permitting of small trucks with three axles or less on the Interstate 278 portion of the GCP between the RFK Bridge and BQE.1.

References:

  1. Grand Central Parkway. NYCRoads.com.

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Page Updated Sunday March 08, 2020.