Prepping for Flatbush's Makeover
A reader sent in the photo at top yesterday, noting the following: “A bird’s eye view of the new foundation for the Flatbush Ave sculpture. Just poured last week. Trees are being planted a block away.” The sculpture in question, rendered below the photo, is part of the $23 million project dedicated to revamping the…
A reader sent in the photo at top yesterday, noting the following: “A bird’s eye view of the new foundation for the Flatbush Ave sculpture. Just poured last week. Trees are being planted a block away.” The sculpture in question, rendered below the photo, is part of the $23 million project dedicated to revamping the stretch of Flatbush leading up to the Manhattan Bridge. The work, which will go in the median just south of Tillary Street, depicts Miss Brooklyn and Miss Manhattan rotating 25 feet above the street. Other upgrades coming to the thoroughfare include new trees, benches and lighting.
Closing Bell: Big Sculpture Coming to Downtown [Brownstoner]
G Man is absolutely right. I don’t see where anyone has “condoned” night work. I’m sure that the contractor and everyone involved would certainly rather work during the day, but doing so would involve closing the sidewalk and probably taking at least a lane of traffic during daytime hours. The reason they aren’t working days is probably because DOT won’t allow them to.
Undoubtedly, the contractor has been more than a little bit slow, but the city is also requiring the new sewer to be put on piles – to defend them, it’s a pretty tricky thing to do with a narrow trench wedged in between a skyscraper and a subway. The project is designed and paid for by EDC – I don’t think Downtown Brooklyn Partnership or Metrotech BID have anything to do with the pace.
Ironically, the requirement for a new and larger sewer is driven largely by the result of the same rezoning that allowed buildings like the Oro, Toren, and Avalon building to be built. Bigger buildings = more flow = larger sewers.
No comment on the statue.
The housing projects, the Toy Factory, and University Towers are definitely part of the neighborhood, are also affected, and have filed complaints like Toren, Avalon, and the Oro. Grand total we make up a lot more than “less than half a dozen” affected buildings. That’s actually hundreds of people.
There’s also little to no traffic in the middle of the day (9:30 – 3:30) – no reason you need to jackhammer at 3am in a residential area when there are several other options. There are also plenty of detours that could be taken to manage the traffic in the area (e.g. going around MetroTech and getting on the bridge via Tillary), they just can’t be asked to coordinate or find a solution. It doesn’t help that there are multiple different construction projects, so even though most of them are supposed to stop making noise at 12:30 (a deal worked out through our council woman), they ignore it at will bc they know it takes forever to figure out which foreman is in charge.
“why Joe Chan and the city condone disrupting an entire neighborhood at those hours should be reviewed.”
Given the volume (no pun intended) of traffic on Flatbush, no way this work could be done during the day. Not to be unsympathetic, but is this really not obvious?
Entire neighborhood? Less than a half-dozen residential buildings does not equal an “entire neighborhood.”
But, yeah, I absolutely agree the construction management has been atrocious. And that sculpture in an abomination.
Does Joe Chan even live in Downtown? The Ext. makeoever is half-assed. So long as the disgusting trash strewn lots sit vacant on Flatbush and Tillary, Johnson and Gold and CitiPoint is 3/4 empty land, the whole area looks like an unfinished shell. What is happening with Oro2, the Spaceship and the former McDonalds site?
Too bad we will no longer have the Metrotech BID, only Joe Chan and the DTBP that is not helping to move these projects along.
The trench is for sewage/water, and it’s wayyyy over schedule. It’s also preventing the work on the new supermarket there, and delaying it’s opening by months. Sucks for the Toren owners on the Flatbush side as they work late into the night and use bright lamps.
The trench is to redirect waterlines and other pipes that were originally under the building. It’s terrible.
Also terrible, the jackhammering until 3-5am – why Joe Chan and the city condone disrupting an entire neighborhood at those hours should be reviewed.
This area will look great when it’s done, but the noise from the work means most of us who live there haven’t slept properly since the work began.
The trench is to redirect waterlines and other pipes that were originally under the building. It’s terrible.
Also terrible, the jackhammering until 3-5am – why Joe Chan and the city condone disrupting an entire neighborhood at those hours should be reviewed.
This area will look great when it’s done, but the noise from the work means most of us who live there haven’t slept properly since the work began.
Anyone know what that trench next to the Toren is all about? Hard to imagine anyone wanting to buy into the building when they see that.