It has been painful to watch the rebuilding of the southern end of Greenwich for the past four years — it’s like watching paint dry. But I was heartened to see that it looks like the city has closed up the road between Barclay and Murray. The asphalt is not yet it, but the curbs are finished and it almost made me tear up to see someone filling the expansion joints on the sidewalk. And, the block between Warren and Chambers in front of PS 234 was completed quickly, with just some equipment left behind.
There is a new (pushed back) timeline for the construction from the Department of Design and Construction:
This was the schedule we were given in February:
Work on Greenwich between Warren and Chambers included new curbs, sidewalks and roadways, as well as roadway striping. There will be a small storage area on this block (on the east side closer to Warren) to keep equipment nearby. Crews will make sure this does not interfere with the school activity. Infrastructure work, like new catch basins and water mains, was not required for this block. Also, there were no private utility (ConEd, Verizon) interferences encountered in this section, unlike all other blocks.
I have a word in to BNY, since they now have a huge sidewalk in front of the bank. At one time they had plans for the corner across from Target; I will do an update when they get back.
The work started here in May 2022 on what was scheduled to be a five-year project. Back the DDC thought they would have Barclay to Murray paved over and restored by May 2024, but the project was pushed back by the stew of city and non-city agencies that control what lies beneath the streets.
Back in October 2024, the schedule was this:
It all began as a Department of Transportation roadway reconstruction project, but the city decided it was time to readdress the quick fixes made after 9/11 on the watermains — some of which date back to the 1880s — enlarging the scope by about 90 percent, the DDC said. So they did the whole shebang: replacing the roadbed, the curbing, the watermains, and moving around all the other utilities in the roadbed, while some of them also make improvements.
“The idea is to not come back here for a century,” said Ian Michaels, the DDC’s director of public information, when we toured in 2024. “This is the most the city can do to fix a neighborhood.”
Thanks as always for the update. Any word on the work on Murray Street between West Broadway and Greenwich?
“The idea is to not come back here for a century,” said Ian Michaels, the DDC’s director of public information, when we toured in 2024. “This is the most the city can do to fix a neighborhood.”
I find this statement maddening. It’s more fair and equitable to spread that work in increments over 100 years, not to stick current residents with 100 years of work jammed into 5 years. That this was allowed to happen reflects poorly on our local representatives (Marte?). This has been an eyesore for far too long, to say nothing of the traffic it has caused.
Are they really not adding any street trees to the new expanded BNY sidewalk?
Let’s see the 14th St. repair that took 10 years. Delayed by bad selection of contractors with poor paving materials. More recently the Worth St. renovation where the wrong size pipes were ordered and now this endless Greenwich St. saga. I’m sure the RATS love it! Dear Mayor Mamdani, Please remedy this permanent NYC futility regarding road and utilities repair.
BNY is doing a full facade replacement on that building, which will have multi-year scaffolding, sidewalk closures and partial street closures. Nothing like coordinating outcomes. :(