Lower Manhattan is getting even more construction this week, as the city Department of Design and Construction embarks on an 18-month overhaul of three streets.
Leonard St. between Hudson St. and W. Broadway; Greenwich St. between Canal and Hubert Sts.; and Harrison St. between West and Hudson Sts. will all get top-to-bottom makeovers. The $14 million project is part of the city’s post-9/11 repairs program.
Pieces of the water main beneath Leonard and Greenwich Sts. are more than 100 years old and must be replaced, D.D.C. spokesperson Matthew Monahan said. All three streets will get new sewers, catch basins and manhole covers, and Con Edison will use the opportunity of open street beds to upgrade utilities.
“It’s best when you can control excavation by repairing and upgrading [the utilities], rather than responding to infrastructure failure,” Monahan said.
The city has not decided on the exact project schedule, but the city plans to do Leonard St. first, then Greenwich St., then Harrison St., though the projects will likely overlap. The streets may be closed, and local water shutoffs will be unavoidable, Monahan said.
At the end, the streets will get new sidewalks, landscaping and streetlights. To make the sidewalks look like historic bluestone, the city will tint the concrete, Monahan said.
Work hours will be Monday to Friday from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. with some weekend work as necessary from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
The city hopes to finish the project in the spring of 2010, but the schedule depends on what workers find once they open up the streets.
“Sometimes you don’t know what you have to do ’til you do it,” Monahan said. “A lot of these streets have a character of their own.”
A D.D.C. representative will present the project to Community Board 1’s Tribeca Committee on Nov. 12.
–Julie Shapiro
