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Business owner Richard Sussman remembers the hassle of trying to drive through Long Island City when the city Department of Transportation reversed the direction of several lanes on the Queensboro Bridge in March, 1996.
"It was total chaos," said Sussman, chairman of Sussman Automatic Corp., a Long Island City manufacturer of steam baths, saunas and boilers. "Traffic was backed up in Queens for miles."
In another two weeks, Sussman and many other motorists may relive that Queens traffic nightmare. Under a city DOT proposal that has not been publicly announced, a new lane reversal plan for the bridge is taking shape.
With work on the bridge's north outer roadway near completion and construction on the south outer roadway scheduled to begin the week of Aug. 3, DOT staffers have scheduled a Tuesday briefing for local officials on the new proposal.
In a letter to City Councilman Walter McCaffrey (D-Woodside) dated July 16, DOT's chief engineer wrote that the changes will result in six Queens-bound lanes and three Manhattan-bound lanes during the evening rush period.
Currently, Queens-bound travelers take five of the nine operational lanes during that time, so the change will result in one less lane being available for Manhattan-bound...