Update March 17, 2016: The Transportation Committee meeting where DOT representatives were going to discuss the Union Street bridge replacement has been canceled. Information on a new date was not immediately available.
GOWANUS — Plans are in the works to replace one of the five bridges that cross the fetid Gowanus Canal.
Department of Transportation officials are scheduled to present a proposal to replace the Union Street bridge at the March 17 Community Board 6 transportation committee meeting which will be at 6:30 p.m. at P.S. 32, 317 Hoyt St.
Replacing the drawbridge, which turned 111 earlier this month, has been on the city's to-do list for several years, Community Board 6 District Manager Craig Hammerman told local blog Pardon Me For Asking back in 2010.
The DOT did not immediately respond to a request for comment for this story.
City officials said recently that Mayor Bill de Blasio's proposal to build a streetcar line linking Brooklyn and Queens could require the construction of new bridges over the Gowanus Canal and Newtown Creek.
Meanwhile, Gowanus neighborhood advocates have said they want a new bridge over the canal just for pedestrians and bicyclists.
► READ MORE: Streetcar Bridge Over Gowanus Canal Should Link to Subway, Group Says
The Union Street bridge is one of the Gowanus' five crossings, all of which can move to accommodate boat traffic on the waterway.
These days there's less waterborne activity on the canal, but the land surrounding it is seeing constant change. An outdoor restaurant opened just south of the Union Street bridge in 2015.
An environmental cleanup is slated for the land just north of the bridge and the property owner plans to eventually develop the property, which was once a fuel oil terminal.
