A freshly paved street in Brooklyn Heights could be about to get jackhammered.
The city finished repaving a stretch of Clinton Street in Brooklyn Heights last week, and days later orange markings that usually denote imminent sub-street work appeared, suggesting that the fresh asphalt may be scheduled to get ripped up again in a stunning case of government ineptitude. But a spokeswoman for the city’s roads department said her office has no idea the source of the symbols.
The paint begins at the corner of Pierrepont Street heading towards Cadman Plaza West and extends onto the sidewalk near a manhole cover and a utility hatch.
Utility companies usually procure permits from the Department of Transportation before cutting open a street, unless they deem it an emergency, said neighborhood community board administrator Robert Perris. And the city usually refrains from issuing those permits for streets that were just paved, he said.
“The DOT understands that the general public is extremely cynical about freshly paved streets being dug up,” he said. “It was surprising that these markings showed up so soon after the paving.”
The only open permits listed for that intersection by the city are for the resurfacing job, which is finished.
So for now the marks remain a mystery along with the identities of those responsible for the white flags that appeared one July morning atop the Brooklyn Bridge.
“We don’t really know what it is,” Perris said. “Are they from German artists?”
