City revives Third Avenue redesign in Sunset Park, a day after DOT pushed back on a Council bike-lane mandate

The city will rebuild Third Avenue under the Gowanus Expressway in Sunset Park, a 2.1-mile stretch where drivers have killed 17 people in the past decade, Streetsblog reported Wednesday. The plan revives a redesign that DOT proposed in 2024 and then shelved.

Under the new plan, the avenue would go from six moving lanes to four. It would get 10-foot-wide protected bike lanes on each side of the concrete median under the highway, plus pedestrian islands and curb extensions that cut the 150-foot crossing distance in half. Parking in the median would be metered. Work would start in 2027 between 60th and 43rd streets and continue north to 20th Street in 2028. A two-way bike lane would also go on 60th Street between Second and Fourth avenues.

Why it matters to residents: Third Avenue is the main commercial strip for much of Sunset Park and runs past schools and a hospital. Streetsblog reported that in late August a driver struck and killed a 28-year-old nurse who had just finished her shift at that hospital. Mayor Zohran Mamdani said of the deaths, "That cannot continue." Local Council Member Alexa Avilés told Streetsblog she was glad the work starts in the southern section, near the schools and the hospital.

Streetsblog reported that the 2024 plan stalled after pushback from business groups, led by the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce, even though the local community board strongly supported it. Two pedestrians were killed on the avenue in 2025 by a driver who ran a red light.

What our records add

The redesign was announced a day after DOT argued against a bike-lane mandate. At Tuesday's Transportation Committee hearing, Commissioner Mike Flynn testified on Int. 613, from Council Member Rita C. Joseph. The bill would require DOT to build 100 miles of protected bike lanes a year for six years. Flynn said the administration shares the goal but that "mandates don't always adapt to our evolving city," and asked for flexibility to choose the right design for each corridor (transcript). The committee laid the bill over. It has 11 sponsors, including Lincoln Restler, Shahana K. Hanif, Crystal Hudson and Chris Banks. Avilés is not among them.

A bill to undo bike lane targets is also pending. Int. 375, from Vickie Paladino, would remove bus and bike lane benchmarks from the city's Streets Master Plan. It has seven sponsors, including Joann Ariola, David M. Carr and Phil Wong, and has been in committee since Jan. 29 without a hearing. One member, Farah N. Louis, is listed as a sponsor of both Int. 375 and Int. 613.

Avilés has a pending bill on air quality along roads like this one. Int. 54 would require air quality monitoring on designated "heavy use" streets. It has 14 sponsors and has been in the Environmental Protection Committee since Jan. 29 without a hearing.

The committee's workload. The Transportation and Infrastructure Committee has 159 items pending, 122 of them for more than 180 days. That is the largest backlog of any Council committee we track.

Street redesigns usually don't need a Council vote. DOT can redesign a street like Third Avenue on its own authority. Community boards weigh in, but their votes are advisory. The Council's role is mostly oversight and money: hearings like Tuesday's, and the capital budget that pays for concrete work.

Safety numbers from the hearing. Flynn told the committee that traffic deaths over the first three quarters of 2026 were the second-fewest since the city started tracking them in 1910, and that pedestrian deaths were at an all-time low (transcript).

What's next

Streetsblog reported that the first phase starts in 2027. DOT typically presents street designs to the local community board before construction; for Third Avenue, that is Brooklyn Community Board 7. Int. 613 and Int. 375 both stay in committee until the chair schedules a vote.