Bay Ridge wants to get its grooves back.
Community Board 10 wants the Department of Transportation to restore grooves that were cut into an accident-prone portion of Shore Road Drive to slow down traffic and give drivers more traction on the winding thoroughfare.
The so-called “rumble strips” were erased with a recent repaving of the roadway, and CB10 says accidents have gone up as a result.
“Residents are requesting that this be milled and that we get our grooves back,” said CB10 transportation committee chairwoman Jaynemarie Capetanakis. “Previously, the DOT had roughed the pavement in order to slow traffic. More recently this area was repaved and there has now been an increase in accidents.”
The curvy leg of Shore Road Drive between Ridge Boulevard and Third Avenue has been a long-standing problem, said CB10 district manager Josephine Beckmann. In September 2008, a driver lost control on the stretch, spun his car into a tree, and died.
The situation was so bad that residents of the nearby Bay Ridge Towers were calling the community board office almost daily to report accidents on the 730-foot stretch of roadway, according to a letter the board sent the city in 2008 asking for action.
At the community board’s urging, the Department of Transportation milled grooves into the road in 2009 to slow drivers and give them more traction on the S-shaped road, which runs through parkland and routinely collects leaves that become slippery when wet, Beckmann said.
But the Department of Transportation repaved the road in spring 2014 — covering over the life-saving grooves, she said.
Lately, locals have reported more accidents, according to Capetanakis.
The department did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but Beckmann said she’s confident the department will make good on the request, because it was so responsive in 2008.
