Construction on the Barclay’s Center arena is well underway. The arena is scheduled to open in September 2012. Empire State Development (ESD) continues to monitor construction and ensure that the developer, Forest City Ratner, is abiding by the multitude of environmental regulations. The developer and the State are both committed to ensuring that the construction impacts to the surrounding community are as minimal as possible and that construction proceeds in a timely fashion.
 
To prepare for the opening of the arena, ESD has been working closely with the City Department of Transportation and Forest City Ratner to approve the permanent roadway changes that are required to be implemented before the arena opens. These changes are only one component of the traffic mitigation plan articulated in the Final Environmental Impact Statement, but they are the items that the developer must start to implement now so that they will be completed before September 2012. 
 
In order to ensure that the community is informed of these impending roadway changes, we’ve posted a PowerPoint document which describes the specific changes. The full presentation of those roadway changes can be found here, and the public notice can be found here.

A public meeting hosted by Community Boards 2, 6, & 8 was held on June 14, 2011 to provide an opportunity for the public to ask questions regarding the traffic changes. As promised, the questions that we collected at the meeting and their responses can be found here.

For continued updates about all traffic changes, as well as information about progress at the construction site, please sign up for our bimonthly Construction Updates by emailing AtlanticYards@esd.ny.gov. If you have any specific questions or concerns about the construction site, please contact (212) 803-3766.
 
I hope that you will visit the site often, and engage me with any concerns and questions that you have.  

 
Best Regards,
 
Arana J. Hankin
Director, Atlantic Yards Project