Wednesday, July 3, 2013

Who should be liable for broken sidewalk?


From CBS New York:

A Brooklyn business owner has been forced by the city to cough up $30,000 to have his sidewalk repaired – but he says it is the city’s fault that the sidewalk is broken.

As CBS 2’s Janelle Burrell reported, Louis Gellman is the owner of the Hilna Tire Shop in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn. His shop sits alongside the elevated subway tracks of the D Line.

“The vibrations now are so loud, it’s like a jackhammer — and it’s cracking up the sidewalk,” Gellman said.

As any other property owner in the city, Gellman is responsible for maintaining the sidewalk outside. And now, he said he has been asked to pay for damage he did not cause.

“Thirty thousand dollars to replace a sidewalk that I didn’t break,” he said.

Gellman showed CBS 2 pictures, which he said show city contractors parked on his sidewalk. He said their machinery, as well as broken pieces of rail that have fallen to the ground, and the sonic vibrations from the trains through the support poles all contributed to the $200,000 square-foot slab of concrete in front of the tire shop.

“The vibrations for the train is at 100 decibel points,” Gellman said.


$30,000 for a replacement sidewalk? Seems kind of steep.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

$30K??? What is it, polished Sicilian marble?

Anonymous said...

Is that what the city is charging him? He can hire his own contractor and do it for a lot less.

Anonymous said...

He should've hired his own contractors. BTW, is there any possibility the cars patronizing the shop caused the damage? Google Street shows what looks like a continuous curb cut....

Anonymous said...

Sonic vibrations? The subway has been overhead since 1920. Can he prove that the subway and only the subway caused that damage?

Anonymous said...

How about the construction vehicles and broken pieces of rail? Why did you skip over those?

Anonymous said...

I didn't. But what proof is there that a broken piece of rail (how many times did that happen) or construction trucks (how often were they there?)caused all of the damage?

Anonymous said...

Well the guy has photos. Hopefully they're time stamped. Construction equipment will easily crack a sidewalk.

Anonymous said...

The MTA takes pre-construction photos. That could show something as well.

Anonymous said...

Chop out and set a new 7" thick sidewalk, i wanna say $12.00/sf.

Anonymous said...

2,000 sq ft. @ $ 15.00/sf. = $ 30K Union/Prevailing wage contractor. Sounds about right.