The city's Economic Development Corporation unveiled three plans by Starr Whitehouse Landscape Architects and Planners at Long Island College Hospital last night to "tame the cavernous Brooklyn-Queens Expressway trench" and "reconnect neighborhoods balkanized by the Robert Moses-built highway, including Carroll Gardens, Cobble Hill and the Columbia Street Waterfront District, on Monday night," according to an article by Gary Buiso in The Brooklyn Paper.

The article, however, said that "city officials are already expressing concern over how to pay for any scheme bold enough to 'fix the ditch.'"

"The cheapest plan, about $10 million," the article continued, "involves a massive tree-planting effort along the highway-created chasm - creating one of the greenest stretches in all of Brooklyn.

"Another option calls for the construction of six, lightweight bicycle and pedestrian bridges over the ditch, costing between $20 million to $45 million.

"And the most expensive plan calls for the construction of an iconic, $85 million, energy-generating 'green canopy' along the length of the trench, from Atlantic Avenue to Hamilton Avenue."

Councilman Brad Lander (D-Park Slope) called funding a "significant" challenge, the article reported, but said he remained optimistic, adding that "It's not just a pipe dream" and "We can work to make it happen."

Since the summer, the article said, experts have been brainstorming with residents to determine how best to reduce noise, improve safety, increase "sociability" and beautify the otherwise grim area -- and do so in a way that is cost effective and achievable in the next 10 years.

One of the plans called for small cantilevers over the sides of the "trench" to attenuate sound and provide more space for plantings and other amenities.