For the past two and a half years, residents along 14th Street between Avenue A and Avenue B have endured the ongoing L-train reconstruction. (Read about that here and here.)
Now more construction arrived at the end of March as the NYC Department of Environmental Protection decided to start a (non-emergency) old sewer line repair in the middle of 14th Street between A and B.
Residents of 542 E. 14th St. described the scenario:
The project involves jackhammers, chainsaws, a pipe cutter, several generators/pumps, as well as cranes. The sound is unbearably loud, at times shakes the building, goes on all day, including weekends, and is expected to continue for several weeks.
The result is that, while we are stuck inside our homes upon the order of the governor because of the pandemic, we are being forced to endure incredibly loud and disruptive non-emergency work on the part of the DEP. This is cruel and is completely outside the spirit of solidarity we need right now. Everyone is trying to do their part in staying sane and calm during this ongoing crisis, and yet we are being tortured by unnecessary repair work.
According to the residents, the "worst" of the work takes place between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m., though it commences at 7 a.m. and lasts until 3 p.m.
Below is a three-second sampling of what goes on for hours...
Back to the residents: "This is a real 'screw you' to the community, especially after we've endured two and a half years of the ongoing MTA construction."
Previously on EV Grieve:
Nightmare scenario for residents who learn that 14th Street and Avenue A will be the main staging area for the L-train reconstruction
Somebody should tweet this to Cuomo and see if he will take action. We know De Blah-sio won't lift a finger.
ReplyDeleteUgh, this gives me flashbacks to when I lived on John street in FiDi 10 years ago, while the city did construction for the (now completed) Fulton Street Station. I truly feel for these people as I have endured the same torture from the city. Down there, they had a 24 hour work permit and would do all loud jackhammering from 7am-7pm. It was truly terrible, that one year our landlord (very sweet person) came up to our unit and told us he wasn’t raising the rent bc he knows he wouldn’t find anyone to live there.
ReplyDeleteWhen you live so close to a city construction zone, you see how poorly managed and organized it is. Get ready for the city to pour concrete/asphalt multiple times, and rip it up multiple times. It’s truly maddening!! I hope they are able to pass a pause in the work order, the city wouldn’t even hear our case as we were college girls at the time.
I'm sympathetic to the residents but I'm not sure there's a clear solution here. If anything it seems like this might be a good time to accelerate this project and similar work. MTA capital projects can be done without interrupting current service levels since they're reduced anyway, for example. Not to mention that there's never a good time and doing it now keeps some people employed.
ReplyDeleteHwy 11.32 AM, I guess you did not read the article. It'snot MTA work but DEP work. This is new, the MTA work is old and winding down.
ReplyDeleteI live on the corner of 14th & B. The loud and disruptive work isn't just from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. It's loud and disruptive from 7:00 a.m. till they're finished for the day, around 3:30 p.m. Yesterday, my building was shaking. I went outside and found the foreman and told him the backhoes being used to break up the street were shaking the building, which was built in 1906. He literally said, "Oh yeah?" without looking me in the eye. I reiterated my concern and he told me to go inside. This level of non-emergency work is completely unacceptable during a statewide shutdown, in the middle of a pandemic. It's cruel and unnecessary.
ReplyDeleteI live about 30 feet from this, and it is unbearable- breaking apart the street with a crane, jack hammers, all sorts of equipment with motors, saws cutting metal. The workers are definitely not social distancing either. This is not emergency work- these pipes have been sitting around for months; they are just taking advantage of the street being less crowded. It is sheer torture to listen to this all day long and not able to leave, and very unfair to the residents .It also violates the stay at home order for non-essential work.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous 1:43. Sorry if I wasn't clear. I did read the article and saw that it is sewer repair work being done by DEP. I'm just not sure that sewer repair should only happen in case of emergency. In December there was a collapsed pipe in Queens that caused major damage and I'm guessing the affected residents would have preferred that the problem was addressed earlier. On top of that the work is keeping people employed. If not now then when?
ReplyDeleteMarcos 4:30 pm; How about doing this work when people aren't trapped in their homes due to a pandemic? How about doing this work when it's medically ok to have large crews work together? How about doing this work when it is not in violation of a government directive? How about not taking advantage of other people's misfortune to get yourself a little extra work at hundreds of other people's expense.?
ReplyDeleteMTAtoxic. I'm sincerely sorry that you're dealing with this. I'm not trying to attack you or change your mind. I just think there is another valid view here while still seeing that yours is valid too. Maybe the risk of a sewer pipe collapse and the corresponding negative consequences is low enough to delay this work. Who knows? I'm not trying to attack you or change your mind. However, I don't believe that the construction workers see themselves as taking advantage of the misfortune of others. I'm inclined to believe that similar to grocery or other workers they're probably scared to go to work but do so because it's the best of many bad options. Take care.
ReplyDeleteCome to the corner of C & 10th, see what hell looks like for the last 16 months.
ReplyDeleteThis is awful! How is it legal to be doing this now? These people need to go home and leave those poor people alone.
ReplyDelete