Repairing roads well traveled

From the Queens Chronicle:

Several civic leaders in South Queens said they had been told the reason for the delay between milling and paving was to allow utilities to do any maintenance work on infrastructure under the roadbed before it is repaved.

Once a street is resurfaced, the DOT lists it as protected for five years, meaning it cannot be opened except for emergency work. But emergency work is common. A situation like that occurred in Rego Park last summer when only a few weeks after Woodhaven Boulevard was repaved, Con Edison opened up the street near Penelope Avenue for emergency construction, leaving an uneven surface for several months.

Before the boulevard was repaved last month in Woodhaven, there was work being done under the southbound side at 91st Avenue.

But [Kenichi] Wilson was unsure if that was the reason there was a gap between the milling and repaving.

“I don’t know if they synchronize that,” he said, adding the delay may be due to the amount of time it takes to mill versus resurface. He said the DOT will mill a bunch of streets at once before laying down asphalt.

“If you’re one of the first streets milled, you might have to wait until every other street is milled before they pave,” he said.