J. sent an email way back in May, before time began: “I am writing about a major road work scheme currently taking place on the West Side Highway, currently around the Canal Street area, but it shifts around daily. Numerous huge blocks of the existing roadway on both northbound and southbound carriageways are periodically being surgically cut out and removed, both at night and during the day, and replaced by huge pre-cast blocks, by a company called Uretek USA.”

And the state Department of Transportation, which “owns” Route 9A, or what we call West Street, had this prompt (just for the record, it was me who sat on it) reply: “We are currently repairing the pavement along Route 9A between the Hugh Carey Tunnel and 59th Street using concrete panels. These panels, which were precast in a controlled factory environment, enable us to efficiently replace sections of the concrete pavement. A damaged section of the pavement is removed and a precast panel is inserted in its place. This eliminates the curing time that would be needed if concrete were poured on site, and it also reduces lane-closure times.”

Et voila.