It’s like rubbing asphalt in an open wound.
Neighbors along 92nd Street between Third Avenue and Ridge Boulevard are infuriated that, after 10 months of non-stop construction tearing up their street, the city will only resurface the center strip of the road its workers cut out during the project — instead of the entire street.
Work on the block started after a 70-foot-deep sinkhole opened up on the corner in June 2012, and residents say the heavy machinery left potholes from curb to curb — making the decision to only resurface the middle of the road utterly absurd.
“The street looks like Swiss cheese,” complained Denise Vento, who claims she recently had to pay $3,900 to replace the shocks that were destroyed thanks to months of driving over the broken blacktop. “You have a chance to finish it off correctly, all the equipment, all the manpower, all the material, and to only do it halfway doesn’t have any common sense behind it.”
Vento’s neighbors agreed.
“It’s outrageous,” said resident and Community Board 10 member Eleanor Schiano. “It’s unbelievable that they would leave the street the way it is.”
State Sen. Marty Golden (R–Bay Ridge), Councilman Vincent Gentile (D–Bay Ridge), and CB10 sent a joint petition with more than 100 signatures to Department of Environmental Preservation commissioner Carter Strickland — whose agency is overseeing the project — calling on him to lay fresh asphalt over the rest of the street.
“The residents deserve to have this street refurbished entirely,” Golden said.
But the city insists it will only repair areas ripped up as a direct result of last summer’s disaster.
“The Department of Environmental Preservation will resurface the roadway that was damaged by the sewer line break,” a spokesman said.
Reach reporter Will Bredderman at wbredderman@cnglocal.com or by calling (718) 260-4507. Follow him at twitter.com/WillBredderman.
