[Photo on 11th and A from Thursday evening]
In recent weeks workers have been replacing curbs/upgrading pedestrian ramps on corners from Avenue A to Avenue D.
Several residents have questioned the quality of the work.
A reader shared these images from Avenue B...
Per the reader: "They failed to seal or finish the concrete, which will fill up with water and crack as soon as we get a freeze this winter."
Another reader has a few questions, such as, Is the work actually finished?
ALL of them are terribly constructed. [This is] the one on Avenue B and 10th Street, southwest corner.
You'll notice that the new ramp is not flush with the street, so the gap was filled in with some sloppily placed extra concrete. This is at every new curb ramp, and most of them are worse than the one pictured here. I imagine many of these will have pooling when it storms.
Is this a case of a sloppy contractor who does bad work without repercussion? Or did the contractor do it properly per spec and these streets are going to get milled and repaved soon and will then be flush to the ramp?
[Northeast corner of 6th and B from yesterday]
No word at the moment if crews will be returning to smooth out those ramps ... or if this is it.
Updated 9/7
A reader shared this photo from this morning... showing a crew doing some new curb work on Avenue B at 11h Street...
Updated 9/9
Ramp work is wrapping up. Update here.
27 comments:
Thanks for reporting on this. I've been wondering why all of a sudden all of them need to be upgraded and why they managed to do such a shitty job of it.
I am sure this will be repaired eventually, which may be the reason for that asphalt ramp. It's still a disgusting sight. What is with the red mats? Do they serve an actual purpose or was this another plum contract awarded to an unscrupulous donor to the immoral mayor. I thought the campaign for one new york ended (this reminds me of the rat bag guy, another asshole awarded a contract for shitty dubious service)
It looks like these contractors just want an excuse for extra hours and overtime. More typical wasteful spending and lousy vetting by the city.
Well, this is stupid because the primary and express purpose for curb cuts is to help disabled people navigate—even though curb cuts are useful for hand carts and other wheeled vehicles—and there is a set of standards for ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) compliance.
This paper shows that most (84 percent) of the curb cuts aren't ADA-compliant, however.
I get nervous when the city suddenly pays attention to our neighborhood and makes infrastructure "repairs". Is this part of the complete gentrification master plan? Did Starbucks' "guests" poll in favor of more ramps near their present and future homes? I did not see the need of all this new work outside of a few corners at best. We are a cynical bunch but we have learned not to trust what the city thinks is an improvement.
as an older person who uses a cane i find almost ALL of the curb cuts to be more difficult to walk on than the sometimes high step to the curb.
the work on the old more professional looking finished cuts are no easier to walk down and many are already falling apart..
those orange “mats” are supposed to be non-slip for wheelchairs. they’re certainly not non slip for walking.
Looks like the same charlatans who filled the hole in Tompkins Square Park so skillfully are the same crew who botched this job.
Thank you for reporting on this! I live on this corner and watched them do this then noticed how poorly it was done when I came home. I thought for sure it couldn't be finished but sure enough there is no sign of them. I am in my 30s and I almost faceplanted crossing the street because of this crap. I can only imagine how the elderly and less healthy deal! Is this something we can 311???
Someone got paid for this? How do we report this to the city?
I noticed this shitty work too. Some half-assed contractor, most likely. Those orange things make people trip more than the ice would make them slip. I'm guessing that's what they're for.
Did you notice that they also removed of the new BigBelly trashcan in order to d their work and that, as of today, none have been returned?
I'm guessing this is an outcome of the City's settlement of a lawsuit by the Eastern Paralyzed Veterans Association, where the City agreed to spend more money to make all curbs ADA-compliant in high density areas. As far as complaining, I bet the Veterans would be interested and I would also call 311 and then gice the 311 complaint numbers to the Community Board office sos they can follow up. Posting on EVG won't make a difference. (As much as we love EVG.)
According to DOT following my Tweet:
"NYC DOTVerified account
@NYC_DOT
To maintain accessibility, work crews typically install temporary ramps until concrete, asphalt or restoration is complete."
Guess we are gone go for another round of asphalt, some of those streets were paved 3 months ago or so..
They must have hired the same lousy contractors that did the concrete work on Astor Place that had to be redone because of all the cracks. From the look of things, Crack is back in the East Village.
This is the dirty not-so-secret of the "private sector is inherently more efficient!" Ideologues. When NYC had its own construction crews in the Al Smith era, buildings whose beauty we gawk at today went up in 6 months. Patronage at work.
For anyone wondering, the highly skilled contractor (hah!) responsible for this work is "Vale Construction Corp." per NYCDOT's Active Street Construction Permits search.
Yo this shit had me confused to. I was like "man, classic new york shitty". But it's crazy that whoever did this did it so half assed. I couldn't help but laugh.
I was just on 11th and A, which is the corner right next to the senior center where this lowered sidewalk and concrete "ramp" are especially needed, and I noticed the shoddy work on the concrete. They just piled up some concrete to form a ramp, and it's all crumbly already on the sides. They apparently didn't use any form to make this. They just did it by hand. This ramp is not going to last long. Could it be it is temporary, and they are going to come back and lift that part up and do it properly using a concrete form, and then they will seal it?
Yes.
so tired of this shit. Did the contractors working for this administration do a google search on how to build this sidewalk safety thing? All these people do half ass jobs but get paid to the max on our dime. Vote for change
Mayor De Blasio: This is an insult to everyone who walks these streets, and especially to those who NEED a ramp to get around safely. It is an insult to everyone who pays taxes, to waste money on such shoddy work.
On election day, I will write in "Mickey Mouse" if I have to, but I will NOT vote for you!
The steel curbs were not cut deep enough to be flush with the street, hence the need to fill in with cement, which will eventually wash away over the winter. Then we can sue the city for not being ADA compliant, when an old lady or man trips, or a wheel chair falls over.
Interestingly, this is rushed through before the primaries as if this will convince voters to pull the tab for DeBlasio,
That is some hackenstien shit there!!! Our tax dollars hard at shoddy work!!!
At 5:58 PM, Anonymous said:
Interestingly, this is rushed through before the primaries as if this will convince voters to pull the tab for DeBlasio,
I'm willing to vote for Sal Albanese; I don't think DeBlasio deserves my vote this time around.
A few weeks ago they started aggressive ly on 13 and C leaving no pedestrian path. Call 311 and told they were given a summons. Wow!
Community Board 3 is on this.
Whenever you have a complaint, call it in to 311 and get a Service Request number and then contact your community board.
Attend Community Board meetings to make your voice heard. That's where democracy begins.
Community Board 3, which covers the Lower East Side and Chinatown, is one of the most responsive in NYC. I know, I just moved to another neighborhood where this area’s community board does not respond to residents’ complaints. But CB3 DOES.
Community Board 3: http://www.nyc.gov/html/mancb3/html/home/home.shtml
File complaints here: http://www.nyc.gov/html/mancb3/html/forms/service_complaint.shtml
These mats are dreadfully brittle, I've seen a few by Trump Soho (the hotel the Panama Papers built) that look like cracked plates and many others in Greenwich Village that are already damaged. Looks like another shitty vetting multi-million dollar wasted lousy contract by the de Faustio and his administration of dunces. And that includes the 300 strong and stupid moron cult of aides.
FWIW, I believe those knobby mats are so the blind/ visually impaired walking with canes/ drunken bros and sororisluts know when theyre getting close to the curb.
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