By Alex Schmidt
Taste of Tribeca
A metal grate has residents of 117 Beekman St. irked. The covering for a construction catch basin was recently installed directly in front of the building’s doorway, and tenants of the 22-unit complex between Front and Pearl Sts. – one of the first developments in the Seaport neighborhood – are incensed about what they see as a safety hazard for people getting out of taxis or unloading cars.
“We’re very concerned about the safety issue in terms of placing a grate there. We’re just disappointed,” said Scott Rubman, president of the building, who has lived there since 1992.
The construction on Beekman and on several nearby streets is related to, among other things, the Wall Street Area Water Main Project, which was launched in 1999 strictly as a water main replacement. However when agencies began work they realized that the Financial District’s narrow streets, filled with utilities below, required much more work than they had initially thought. Currently the city’s Department of Design and Construction, the Department of Transportation and the Department of Environmental Protection are involved in several projects in the neighborhood.
Rubman said that he and residents were told that the current work on Beekman is related to making the curb seven inches high, a D.D.C. project. When workers began digging to lay the cement, Rubman said, they encountered old pipes that needed to be replaced, and the completion date has been pushed back to October or possibly even next year.
In response to area construction, Rubman organized a meeting with D.D.C. and other agencies on April 26 to discuss the work. When residents were told the location of the grate, Rubman said their response was, “‘Right here? You have 300 feet open in one direction and 200 in the other. Why does it have to be right here?’…We left with the impression that everything was being taken care of until two days ago, and there was the catch basin right in front of our door.”
Rubman had been told that cement would be poured on Wednesday the May 10, and on Tuesday he called the D.D.C. to protest. “After the conversation a representative of the D.D.C. came to the building, made a phone call, and half an hour later the cement trucks showed up,” he said. The cement was poured a day early.
Matt Monahan, D.D.C. assistant commissioner, said that had there been any suitable alternative location, the grate and catch basin would have been relocated. Among the factors that necessitated placing the grate in front of 117, Monahan cited underground facilities and utilities inconveniently lining the street beneath the sidewalk, and the constraint of pedestrian ramps at street corners in front of which grates typically are not placed because they present a hazard to pedestrians. On the issue of the residents’ surprise and frustration, Monahan said, “This is part of the city’s street. None of this work is on private property.” He did add that, “We want to know comments or views of community residents…[and on this project] there has been some interchange between the city, the project, the community board and local residents.”
But Rubman disagrees as to the agency’s transparency. “It’s in everybody’s interest to replace these things. The issue is there’s no communication,” he said. “When we bring something up it’s either ignored or they give you lip service.”
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