The Brooklyn-Queens Expressway (BQE) Expert Panel released its Final Report on January 30, 2020 with recommendations to fix a critical section of the expressway. The panel, which included C2SMART Director Professor Kaan Ozbay, Associate Director Professor Hani Nassif, and Affiliated Faculty Professor Mitchell Moss, called for immediate actions to be taken owing in part to C2SMART’s contribution.

In a press release from New York City Mayor Bill De Blasio, C2SMART’s contribution was cited by mentioning that “Using data supplied by new state-of-the-art sensors, made by C2SMART to aid DOT in assessing the structure, the BQE Expert Panel noted that many trucks on the roadway are in severe violation of BQE weight restrictions.” Based on this work by C2SMART, the Mayor issued an Executive Order limiting truck usage of the roadway and increasing enforcement

C2SMART’s work was enabled by the federally-funded research taking place at the center led by Professor Hani Nassif. This effort on the BQE resulted from several years of research by the team led by Professor Nassif in monitoring the impacts of overweight trucks on urban infrastructure. C2SMART is using this critical project as an urban testbed part of its real-world infrastructure lab to solve problems with significant and long-term societal benefits.