DUMBO residents may take pride in their historic cobblestones, but the uneven Belgian block and asphalt roadway can leave your muffler dangling like a loose tooth.
Help is on the horizon, now that the city is expected to commence on a $20.4 million renovation of Water and Washington Streets this spring. The road work will include Water Street from Old Fulton Street to Adams Street, and Washington Street from York Street to the waterfront.
“This is a really exciting project. It’s something this whole entire community has worked hard to achieve and we’re delighted the city is moving forward this spring,” she said Kate Kerrigan, executive director of the DUMBO Business Improvement District.
The city’s Department of Design and Construction (DDC) will be the lead agency in doing the work in coordination with the Department of Environmental Protection and the Department of Transportation.
Kerrigan said the work involves a full street reconstruction of the road bed as well as installing and fixing water mains and sewer lines as well as other attendant work to faulty utility lines workers may run into.
The Belgian blocks will be lifted and then reinstalled in keeping with DUMBO’s Historic District when the infrastructure work is completed, she said.
Kerrigan said the road work will require parts of Water Street to be closed when construction of the 18-month project gets underway.
Any other closures the city anticipates will be addressed in a traffic mobility plan with the community, she said.
“I’m looking forward to working with this community here in DUMBO, and on welcoming the construction activity that’s so needed, and then mitigating the impact of that constriction on the residents and businesses that will be affected,” said Kerrigan.
DDC spokesperson Matthew Monahan said some of the infrastructure work will involve combining storm sewers from the streets to sanitary lines from surrounding buildings so one system carries both.
The current antiquated system has them as separate lines in the area, and after the roadwork is done, they will be tied together in one large series of pipes and chambers, he said.
