Big Traffic Changes in the Works Around Atlantic Yards

Motorists just getting used to navigating the maze of construction vehicles, barriers and crossing guards around Atlantic Yards will have to contend with another round of major changes intended to relieve traffic jams. 

The Empire State Development Corp. released a Traffic Mitigation Plan on Monday that will alter the flow of traffic through key intersections as Barclays Center construction continues. (See the video depiction of the changes at right.)

The changes, which will take effect on or around July 15, include:

• Conversion of Fourth Avenue into a one-way street going southbound between Atlantic and Flatbush avenues only.
• Reversing Pacific Street from one-way westbound to one-way eastbound between Fourth and Flatbush avenues. 
• Installation of a traffic signal at Pacific Street and Flatbush Avenue, as well as a crosswalk.
• The ability for motorists to make a right or left turn from Pacific Street to Flatbush Avenue. 
• Truck traffic will be barred from Pacific Street. Northbound Fourth Avenue truck traffic will be diverted to Third Avenue via Atlantic to get onto Flatbush.

A source at the , which covers the neighborhoods north of the Atlantic Yards site, said that the most troublesome area in terms of traffic incidents was the crossing between Atlantic and Flatbush avenues.

However, it was unclear whether the new traffic plan would improve the situation at the notoriously tricky intersection.

According to downstate ESDC public affairs director Elizabeth Mitchell, the changes were the result of extensive study during the Environmental Impact Statement process at the Atlantic Yards site.

Implemented primarily to improve traffic flow between the Flatbush Avenue/Fourth Avenue intersection, the traffic mitigation plan was approved by the city Department of Transportation, Mitchell said.