The cracked and crumbling Cross Bay Boulevard, one of the three paths out of the Rockaways, has been the subject of an outsized share of citizen complaints, according to an analysis by THE CITY.
The thoroughfare has been a problem for decades, according to frustrated residents of Broad Channel. That’s the neighborhood on an island in Jamaica Bay just north of the Rockaways and south of mainland Queens, with the boulevard running through it and A train tracks immediately to the east.
“If there’s a roadway collapse, or if there’s another hurricane, Broad Channel has nowhere to go and people from the center of Rockaway have no way to get out,” local Community Board 14 Chairperson Dolores Orr told THE CITY.
The asphalt of the boulevard is pocked with deep, visible cracks and depressions, even ten years after the devastation of Hurricane Sandy highlighted the need for resiliency work in the area. These days, locals are renewing the call for a complete rebuild of the roadway — which has been the top item on Community Board 14’s capital project list since 1990, including in the most recent budget draft published in mid-October.
Dan Mundy Sr., 85, a lifelong Broad Channel resident and former president of the neighborhood’s civic association, recalled receiving a call in the early 2000s from a local homeowner upset that her house — just doors down from a concrete drainage tunnel that supports a section of Cross Bay Boulevard — shook when trucks passed it.
Mundy said he eventually learned the problem stemmed from the installation of new sewers in the 1990s — a project that required digging trenches and hollowing out the concrete base that supports both sides of the boulevard. This, he said, in turn destabilized the tunnel — and the boulevard at large — as solid concrete was replaced by a patchwork remedy.
Three decades later, trucks, buses and even cars thud loudly as they drive over the cracks formed where the tunnel walls meet the road.
“It’s an accident waiting to happen,” said Mundy, pointing to the tunnel, which is usually walkable when the tide is low but was flooded by a high tide when THE CITY visited Thursday morning. “When you do go under there, you can really see where the concrete is falling off. The [steel] rebars are all sticking out.”
Mundy pointed to another section along the tunnel — also known as a culvert or “sluiceway” to locals — where he said a pothole has opened up time and again. From inside the culvert, Munday said he can “almost put my hands up to the street” where the weak spot is.
“They keep coming and they fix it, and it falls apart again,” Mundy told THE CITY. “So it’s just a Band-Aid they’re doing on everything here.”
The cracks and potholes along the culvert are just one symptom of how the sewer installations that gutted the boulevard in the 1990s have, over the years, continued to destabilize the nearly century-old roadway, said Mundy. The boulevard is estimated to carry an average of about 25,000 cars a day.
I'm going to put this here like this because the people at the DOT really need the exposure:
The city transportation department, however, seems unworried. “The Cross Bay Boulevard culvert is structurally sound,” DOT spokesperson Vin Barone told THE CITY after conferring with DEP. “DOT is working with its sister agencies to conduct routine inspections while we continue to explore long-term infrastructure upgrades.”
Sure Vinny, tell Ydanis and your fellow bike zealots there to keep exploring, maybe more paint on the bike lanes will stop the next deluge.
#ScenesOfQueens
— JQ LLC (@ImpunityCity) October 27, 2022
Blood on the leaves. Gateway National Park. pic.twitter.com/MTTS8EnHqe
12 comments:
C'mon man! Where are we supposed to get the money to fix roads and stuff, when we only have a $98 billion budget to work with (every year)?
We have PRIORITIES, people! Such as (and these are from the City Council):
Creating a Path to Success for Our City's Children & Youth – Yes, that's right! Spend millions more on useless early education to pay off our Teacher's Union donors. Including: "$59 million to support citywide expansion of restorative justice," which is just as bullshitty as it sounds.
Improving Access to Health, Mental Health, and Safety – Because even though we've been doing these things and expanding coverage and throwing billions at this FOR DECADES, we still need to do more. Oh hey, did Sir Laine DeBlasio get a cool billion for JUST this reason? Hmmm.
Increasing Equitable Access to Benefit Programs for ALL New Yorkers -- Even though there is ZERO PROBLEM with access to benefits, we gotta scream "Equity!!" and spend millions on... something.
Supporting Fairness and Equity in the Justice System -- Oh yes! It's takes millions of more dollars to pretend blacks aren't behind the vast majority of crime. "The Administration should provide $34.3 million to support District Attorneys," because we have too many lazy lawyer friends who want do-nothing City jobs.
On and on and on it goes.
I've got a great idea. Let's not spend anything on infrastructure. Let's give a tax break to the rich instead. That'll fix it.
It's almost like Democrats are trying to fail.
Biden’s new America...
Why are New York City roads so bad ?
Oh, we don't even classify them as potholes until they get their own zip codes.
Until then, they are just divots.
J Keenley said...
Why are the roads and bridges in NYC in such horrible condition?
That’s a great and very germane question.
Why? In other words, New York City is one of the richest cities in the planet, the home to Wall Street and the New York Stock Exchange, and it’s the international headquarters for the financial services industry. So why are its roads and bridges in such terrible shape?
Urban roads and bridges, and other forms of infrastructure, are decaying across the country and in every major city, so the problem isn’t a local New York City thing. The urban infrastructure crisis affects all major cities, and especially the older cities, whose bridges and tunnels are very old. And this problem is widely recognized: There have been professional and academic studies, a number of books written on the topic, and both presidential candidates in 2016 promised to address this issue if elected.
Infrastructure repairs and maintenance — along with the creation of new infrastructure — are funded by the federal, state, and local governments. Though Wall Street and the NYSE are booming, as is the economy in general, civic revenues have not kept pace. Despite the wealth in the City in general, less revenue is available for infrastructure repair or creation, and what revenue is available is being diverted elsewhere.
New York Cities roads and bridges are among the most heavily trafficked in the nation. Not only do they receive more usage, and subsequent damage and decay, than anywhere else in the country, the opportunity to carry out repairs and maintenance, is lessened.
Related to #1 above, toll revenue is being systematically diverted. Originally, when a municipality wished to create a new item of infrastructure, or carry out major renovations to an existing item of infrastructure, it would finance the project with a combination of governmental grants and subsidies, and related revenue. Thus, in constructing a new bridge, the municipality would supplement the grant money by raising funds, normally by selling longer-term bonds. Once the project was completed, toll booths would be erected to earn revenue to pay off the bonds. Once the bonds were paid off, New York City quickly realized that toll revenue streamed in at a very fast pace. For example, when Robert Moses orchestrated the construction of the Triboro Bridge (connecting Queens, Manhattan, and the Bronx) in the mid-1930s, his Authority sold 30-year bonds to finance the construction. But once the toll booths went up when the bridge was completed, Moses found that the nickel tolls came in so fast that they paid off the 30-year bonds in about 18 months. Moses was smart enough to realize he had created and enormous and endless revenue source. The toll booths stayed up, the nickels kept rolling in, and his Authority had the cash to finance other projects — and to grant him enormous power. Decades later, New York City officials took this a step further. Not only did the toll booths remain up, and the cost of tolls continue to rise, but they began to divert toll revenue to finance and maintain public transportation. In an effort that essentially punishes drivers for not using public transportation, funds that previously went to infrastructure creation and repair now went to subsidizing the subway and bus system. This system continues to this day, and tolls continue to rise precipitously (e.g. the toll on the Verrazano Bridge connecting Brooklyn and Staten Island is now $17.00!).
New Yorkers themselves seem to have a surprising apathy, or at least a sense of resigned acceptance. This is something that shocked and surprised me when I moved to NYC over 30 years ago, and that continues to shock and surprise me today. The promises and proclamations of politicians notwithstanding, New Yorkers, in general, don’t seem to care about the tons of garbage and refuse blowing around on city streets, they don’t seem to care about the dilapidated condition of their public transportation, and they don’t seem to care about the crumbling decay of their roads and bridges.
Tell Potato Joe that CBB is in the Ukraine and he’ll send billions. 10 percent for the Big Guy tho.
"New Yorkers, in general, don’t seem to care about the tons of garbage and refuse blowing around on city streets, they don’t seem to care about the dilapidated condition of their public transportation, and they don’t seem to care about the crumbling decay of their roads and bridges."
No, because what we care about is SOCIAL JUSTICE!
Problem is that car totalitarians think that a few hundred dollars a year covers road and bridge repair + free car storage.Then they whine about all the money they pay for car insurance, which has nothing to do with infrastructure.
Why should infrastructure for car totalitarians be funded by our taxes?
Pay up you freeloaders!
Didn't Trump fix all of this ?
CBB is for car totalitarians. Let them fix it!
Not blood, the dopes tried to use cheap salt & calcium chloride water cocktail to kill the weeds.
Only problem is those aint run of the mill weeds, that looks like cypress ivy.
You need to use gasoline mineral oil mix to kill from the roots
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