With funding in place, a contractor still needs to be hired before repairs can begin on the High Line’s 23rd St. elevator.
BY SAM SPOKONY | ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED DEC. 23, 2014 | After suffering major damage from Hurricane Sandy flooding, the West 23rd Street elevator that provides access to the High Line is expected to remain out of service until spring, according to city officials.
Salt water that surged into the elevator’s mechanical systems caused damage that was extensive enough to require a complete rebuilding of its interior mechanisms. But the process of starting repairs has been delayed due to difficulties in allocating city funding, as well as questions over whether that money would be reimbursed through Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) funding, according to a spokesperson for the NYC Economic Development Corporation (EDC), which is overseeing the repairs.
Now, the city has secured the necessary funds to complete the work, and EDC has hired a construction manager for the project, the spokesperson said. That construction manager is currently in the process of hiring a contractor to finally begin performing the repairs. EDC did not disclose the amount of funding that has been allocated for the work, since all the construction contracts have not been finalized.
The city agency also said that FEMA reimbursement for any money spent on the project has still not been secured, but added that the Friends of the High Line — which maintains the elevated park — will continue to pursue the reimbursement.
Some area residents have complained that the elevator was shut down well before Sandy struck, claiming that that the Friends of the High Line have used the disaster to minimize its own inaction in terms of repairs.
In response to questions about that, a High Line spokesperson on January 10 acknowledged that the elevator was intermittently out of service during a brief (and unspecified) period of time before the October 2012 hurricane. The spokesperson said the elevator system was functional during that time, but that it had some mechanical problems that needed periodic fixing by the Parks Department.
