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West Broadway construction project to begin in May
The Department of Design and Construction will begin work on West Broadway between Thomas and Leonard starting within the first weeks of May, doing combined sewer replacement work. The project is scheduled to be completed by spring 2024.
The work will start on the east side of the street at Worth, and then move to the west side once the scaffold is removed from 160 West Broadway, the Western Union Building. (They have had some delays on that work, including a stop work order. But it is continuing now.)
The contractor has a month to start after the “notice to proceed,” which should come through on May 2.
Two other updates from the DDC:
- The reconstruction of Vesey Street between Ann and Church is scheduled to start this summer, in July or August, and last at least two years.
- Plans to rebuild Nassau Street from Pine to Maiden Lane just went out to bid. The work there should start in the third quarter of 2022 — October or November. There have been discussions (and concerns) about this job for two years. The project is expected to take three years.
8 Comments
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Do you know if this is a larger project or limited to just between Thomas & Leonard? Will more work continue down West Broadway when this first phase is complete? Thanks!
Good question and I can ask.
Hi! Curious if we ever learned whether this work will continue farther south or north on West Broadway?
Thanks for all you do!
Do you know if they have plans to deal with the rat issue that is in the sewers and explodes onto the street? Will the work cause
rat displacement and movement to other areas?
Gee, and just when the road work on worth street was finally finished…
Thank you for the sewer update. Everyone living and working on West Broadway between Duane Street and Thomas Street have been patiently waiting for the DEP to address our sewer back up problems. All our buildings and businesses experience sewer line backups during heavy downpours.
The problem stems from the old out dated sewer-line. The 15 inch aging sewer line has been a problem ever since living here in the 1970s.
Remember the water main break of 2009 on the corner of West Broadway and Duane Street? It was at that time we learned from DEP that the water main was probably 100 years old, and the sewer line was only 15 inches in diameter, too small for modern day demands. We have been trying to get DEP to address our sewer problem and the multitudes of back ups we experience during heavy rains.
In 2009 we reached out to Senator Daniel Squadron and his office arranged a meeting for community members affected by the backups to meet with the top DEP officials. We begged DEP to replace the 15 inch pipe and we were told there was no scheduling for that repair in the near future.
Instead DEP offered to schedule “de-greasing” the sewer line every three months because we have 4 restaurants feeding into this 15 inch pipe.The restaurants have residual grease coming from the dishwashers and it builds up over time, hardens around the inside of the pipe further reducing any possible flow.
The de-greasing is merely a Band-Aid operation, not a solution. DEP is well aware that this narrow sewer drain line cannot handle the demand of heavy downpours.
Another DEP band-aid solution was to eliminate the surface corner catch basins at the corner of Duane Street and West Broadway. This was an attempt to reduce the demand on our line, during a heavy rainfall. Instead they created additional problems for the corner surface catch-basins on Thomas Street and West Broadway. All of the rain flowing down Duane Street has to take a right turn and find its way to the corner of Thomas Street.
The 7th Ave subway sidewalk grates have drains, that also feed into this one section of sewer line on West Broadway. DEP’s current band aid was to cover up the Subway grates on both sides of West Broadway, in an effort to prevent the rain water from pouring down through grates, into the drain, and ultimately into our “Overtaxed Line”. Reducing the demand has been ineffectual.
The worst back-up was the last storm named IDA. Our building had 6 inches of rain and sewer water from our front vault to the back of our building’s cellar. The pharmacy at 138 West Broadway experienced much more than 6 inches.
DEP came after Ida’s-311 complaints and explained to us that our piece of sewer line on West Broadway and Duane Street is the beginning of the line and this one piece of the line has “NO FLOW”, yet it must flow north to enter into the Thomas Street sewer line.
The Thomas Street sewer line is perpendicular to the West Broadway line, it flows west, not north. During a heavy rainstorm the Thomas Street line runs like a forceful river. Having one line with “NO FLOW” meeting another line with too much flow, makes it impossible for our sewer water to empty into the Thomas Street line, thus creating the back-ups. Thomas streets sewer line is running west to Hudson Street and then has to run north at Hudson Street to meet the a buried catch basin on Hudson Street just below Worth Street.
It’s very disappointing watching sewer-lines being replaced all around us where expensive developments are happening and not have DEP consider helping us with this one piece of the line. Will our “NO FLOW” sewer line ever be scheduled for replacement?
We’re hoping because Tribeca Citizen has reported new work in May that we too can be included in this new work schedule. Why stop at Thomas Street when it’s just one more block to Duane Street – the beginning of a problem line that feeds into a line that will be replaced. It doesn’t make any sense.
It’s 23 years we are waiting to be scheduled, and we all know extreme weather is in our future. Can we please make the right decisions now before the next flood comes?
Could you please provide an update on this? They started yesterday. However, I see the work at the Western Union Building is still not done. What is their plan here? Thank you!
They are starting on the east side, while the scaffolding is still up. I have tried to make contact with the Western Union folks but no reply.