Neighbors surrounding the site for the White Street jail have won a temporary restraining order to stop nighttime drilling and overnight construction.

The community organizations United Below Canal and Welcome to Chinatown along with four residents filed an Article 78 proceeding — lawsuits used to challenge an action by state and city government — against the City of New York and the five agencies involved in the construction of the borough-based jail on White between Center and Baxter in State Supreme Court, demanding that the city stop the after-hours construction on the jail.

The judge ruled — at least for now — in favor of the plaintiffs, telling the city that they had to show cause for the current double-shift schedule that goes till midnight and includes Saturdays. I don’t have to tell anyone here that this site is embedded in Chinatown, with local businesses, residences and community facilities just feet away — including a 13-story residential building that provides supportive, affordable housing for the elderly.

Construction on the site is expected to go for the next six years, until 2032 — and maybe even later.

“This new schedule represents more than a doubling of construction intensity as opposed to what was studied in the FEIS [the environmental review] and over twice as long a construction period than was studied in the FEIS,” the organizations said in their complaint. “This means that the community will be subjected to unbearable noise, dust, overnight glaring lighting, and other construction effects, yet the City has not conducted any further environmental review to consider the impacts to the surrounding community as a result of this new around the clock construction schedule that will persist for the next 6 years, 7 months and 25 days.”

The city told the community that without the after hours work, the jail will be completed in 2034 rather than 2032. And in response, the complaint called that arbitrary — after all, the city has already blown past its August 2027 deadline to close Rikers Island, since none of the borough-based jails will be ready even close to that date. (Right now, Brooklyn is aiming for 2029; Queens, 2031; The Bronx, 2031.)

To the specifics: Earlier this month, the city advised the Chinatown community that, in order to complete the jail by 2032, as of October 12, 2026, and continuing through 3rd quarter of 2032, construction activities would be extended from 6a to 12a on Mondays through Fridays, and 9a to 5p on Saturdays.

In addition, there will be truck deliveries of materials to the site between 4a and 7a.

I mean, can you imagine if the city tried this in Tribeca proper?

“Today a New York County Supreme Court judge validated what Chinatown has been saying for a long time: the City’s plans for years of nighttime drilling and overnight construction are dangerous to the surrounding community,” Welcome to Chinatown said in its press release.

“A third of our community lives below the poverty line, many in aging buildings just feet from this construction site,” said said Jan Lee, a founder of Neighbors United Below Canal “To impose nighttime drilling and the movement of 30-ton trucks through Chinatown’s narrow streets throughout the night is nothing less than inhumane. This is far more than an inconvenience. It is a threat to the health and well-being of an entire community.”

This updated construction schedule has already caused a flood of 311 noise complaints, traffic jams and community calls to elected officials.

This summer, NYU researchers completed a study with data showing elevated air pollution surrounding the site, as well as gaps in the demolition contractor’s air quality data.

Welcome to Chinatown has launched a GoFundMe campaign for their legal fight to stop overnight construction. Find that here.

More TK, obviously.