BY DUSICA SUE MALESEVIC | Lower Manhattan residents will be hit with yet another street construction project, this time on Worth St. from Hudson St. to Park Row.
The $90 million project is slated to begin this fall and will take five years to complete, but other specifics are not yet available.
Norberto Acevedo of the city Dept. of Design and Construction, told members of Community Board 1’s Tribeca Committee Feb. 11 meeting that the focus will be underground infrastructure, such as water mains and sewers, that are extremely old, he said. Work will also be done on ancillary streets at the east end of the project — Mulberry and Mosco, which is a small alley.
While the committee was glad that the D.D.C. came to them early in the process, the hours of construction was a source of contention. The city plans to allow construction Monday through Friday from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. and 9 p.m. to 5 a.m. and on the weekends, Saturday from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
The city Dept. of Transportation sets the hours of construction and when many members expressed concern and suggested that they be truncated and no weekends, Luis Sanchez, D.O.T.’s Lower Manhattan Borough commissioner, said that would take much longer and add to the costs.
“Let’s say we made it a straight 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. hours,” he explained. “The project gets elongated in terms of years. The more restrictive [the hours are], that $90 million also goes up in price to $100 million. That means $10 million comes from some other part of the city budget.”
Sanchez said it was a balance between reducing costs and lessening community disruption.
Committee member Bruce Ehrmann, who has lived on Worth St. for 27 years, said that he has suffered through Hudson St. reconstruction “and many of us here suffered through Chambers St., which is not done after all these years. Some of us who are younger adults have never lived here without construction on Houston St. And we’re all very concerned.”
Ehrmann said that Chambers St. was to be finished by last month, but has since heard that it will be another five months.
“I don’t think any of us plans or intends to go through the kinds of reconstruction scenarios that have been going on with Chambers and Hudson,” he said.
A week later, John DeLucia, director of street reconstruction for the D.O.T., said that Chambers St. should be done in April. He also told the board’s Quality of Life meeting that Hudson St. should be completed in June.
Trying to get in front of the Worth St. construction, instead of behind it, Ehrmann said that a small citizen advisory committee would be formed.
Parking, traffic, loading and unloading will be affected and bus stops may need to be closed or relocated. Water service will be shut off for up to eight hours, said Acevedo.
“Trash. That’s a big issue anywhere is the city and especially Lower Manhattan,” said Acevedo. “We’ve been on Chambers St. for quite some time. It’s always an ongoing process for the coordination of trash pick up.”
The community construction liaison, he said, will work with the community — giving construction information in advance and fielding complaints.
Jeff Ehrlich, committee member, said that the liaison for Chambers St. project was helpful with issues such as trash, but that later on, it was hard to get accurate information.
“One of the problems is the communication,” he continued. “For instance, I went to the D.D.C. site today to check on what’s the new deadline for Chamber’s St. It says, I believe, either June or July of 2013.”
Acevedo blamed it on the web developer.
Ehrmann also asked about the Lower Manhattan Construction Command Center.
“We lost the L.M.C.C.C., now it’s the Lower Manhattan D.O.T.,” said Ehrmann. “It’s [C.B. 1’s] understanding that will be folded into another division come July or August.”
The center, which closed in early 2014, had been coordinating the many construction projects that were happening south of Canal St. The board and residents were concerned when it was shut down. Its duties were transferred to Sanchez’s office.
Ehrmann wanted to know whether it was true and, if so, who will be communicating with the board.
“Right now, our current funding extends to the end of September,” said Sanchez. “We are going back to state D.O.T. for initial funding” but don’t know if it will be approved until later this year.
“Worse case scenario is some of the staff who will handle Lower Manhattan would just get absorbed into the Manhattan borough,” he said. “Obviously, there will still be staff involved down here in terms of projects so nothing really would change, it’s just that different units now will be more involved rather than anything centrally located in my office.”
Sanchez was asked again about the changes, this time by Catherine McVay Hughes, Board 1’s chairperson, at the Seaport Committee meeting last week. Hughes asked him who will be coordinating the 95 major construction projects in Lower Manhattan.
“There’ll still be coordination, it’s just not going to be to the same level of detail that’s happening right now,” said Sanchez.
Meanwhile at the Tribeca Committee meeting, since it is not known where on Worth St. construction will begin, some business owners are concerned.
Scott Ramsey and his partner Michael Barrow have owned Xeno Lights at 1 Worth St. since 1993 and wanted to know if they would still be able to use the curb cut for moving heavy equipment in and out during construction — but the D.D.C. doesn’t know yet.
Ramsey told the Downtown Express after, “If we can’t get trucks in there, we’ll be out of business.”
With reporting by
JOSH ROGERS
