Ozone Park Patch

A week ago, I photographed a massive cave-in on the intersection of Liberty Ave. and 96th St. and wrote a post on it called Holes in the Ozone. It got the attention of Queens Patch's twitter account and they retweeted my initial tweet about this road hazard to Polly's D.O.T. Well color me impressed when I went back a week later and see it fixed.

Kinda



 


 Looks like someone left, actually lodged a Capri Sun juice bag here for some reason.

 

 Let's see what we find..

 

 Shame on you. D.O.T., even drivers are afraid to go over it.





Apparently, this pathetic Ozone Park Patch job is an established norm. Because this is what I found a block east on 97th.

 

 

 Your city would prefer vehicle owners to get adjusted to this. Because the Mayor has a Black Lives Matter mural by Trump Tower to protect from getting splattered with paint. 

Shame! from ithinkchaos on Vimeo.

Holes in the Ozone

 

Impunity City


 It was about a year ago that I wrote a post called Affixing A Hole, observing and photographing grotesque cracks and craters on the streets and storm drains and the innovation that gets implemented by the city’s Department’s of Transportation and Environmental Preservation to deter people away from the hazards. Now it’s 2020 and it looks like shit hasn’t changed a bit.

 

de Blasio's D.O.T.'s and D.E.P.'s primitively cheap remedies for potholes and damaged catch basins

 

 Impunity City


New York is not only famous for being the biggest city in the world (by default, reputation and hype) but it’s also infamous for it’s potholes which manifest from time to time and also notorious for the tardiness to repair them. But decades riding (and at few occasions driving) in this big city of dreams, I don’t think I have ever seen the creative and quarter-assed way Mayor de Blasio’s Department of Transportation has displayed to remediate or even fix these blights on the roads and pavement. Especially with the usage of traffic cones.

 

 But the de Blasio’s D.O.T.’s shiftlessness is not limited to the lame efforts and solutions to warn citizens of road hazards, it also applies his Department of Environmental Protection for our dilapidated water catch basins. Especially the ones in the perpetually ignored neighborhoods in Southeast Queens.

 

Bayside streets are a lunar landscape

QNS


Residents are criticizing the poor street conditions in Bayside, as cars traveling down local streets run into potholes, large cracks and uneven roads.

Some like Danielle Chase, blame the ongoing sewer and water main replacement for the pothole hell plaguing the neighborhood.

“Most of the poor street conditions are due to the never-ending construction going on. 38th Avenue from the service road to 217th [Street] is a warzone,” Chase told QNS.

 According to nyc.gov, residents can file complaints about potholes, cave-ins, utility damage and hummocks — roadway asphalt that has been pushed into a wave shape — online or by calling 311. But area resident Arlene Mordjikin said the complaints have not made a difference.

“Bell Boulevard between Horace Harding Expressway and 48th Avenue needs to be repaved. I’ve reached out to 311 since 2016 and I’m still waiting,” said Mordjikian.

Bad roads are to blame for added costs

From CBS 2:

A new report finds they cost drivers in our area an average of $2,800 a year.

Part of that $2,800 is spent at car mechanics, reported CBS2’s Aundrea Cline-Thomas.

Drivers consider it a necessary evil to get to work, but traffic backups and potholes are an all-too familiar site in our area.

The cost of wear and tear adds up. A new report from TRIP – a national transportation research group – found drivers in the New York City area spend nearly $2,800 a year. It’s more money spent on car repairs, wasted gas by sitting in traffic and being late for work, all because the roads are so bad.

“It’s distressing to see that here in the metro area 2/3 of pavements are in poor condition,” said Carolyn Bonifas Kelly of TRIP. “That means two out of every three miles you’re driving on you’re hitting potholes, you’re hitting rough roads.”

The larger concern is that the deteriorating infrastructure could keep more jobs from coming to the area.

Experts say the solution is more transportation funding from the state and federal government.

Suspension-busting pothole on Northern Blvd next to new bike lane

How many city workers does it take to fix a hole?

From NY1:

Department of Transportation workers were back at it again Monday pouring asphalt into a sink hole on Stockholm Street for the third time in five days and the fourth time this month. Many residents on this landmarked brick paved street have had enough.

"I don't know who's supervising it but this is not the way to fix a deep hole and it keeps sinking in you know," said one resident.

The city filled the hole on Christmas Eve and again on Christmas Day. But by Monday the asphalt was cracked and sinking.

"The garbage truck came in again and then it, there's a hole again!" said a neighbor.

The problem started in June when a small crack appeared next to the manhole cover where the street meets Woodward Avenue. There is also cracking on the road near the hole.

"It's a dangerous hazard here," said another resident.

Last year a bicyclist was seriously injured when he hit a pothole just steps away from the sinkhole and fell on a fence which went through his neck. After several complaints to 311 many here say it's time for a permanent fix.

Man almost killed by pothole

From the Daily News:

A man in his 50s was critically injured when he hit a pothole on his scooter in Queens on Sunday, police said.

The man was riding at 37th St. and Review Ave. in Long Island City when his tire hit the hole around 3:45 p.m., police said.

Speaking of scooters and potholes, what ever happened to NYCScout? You know, the little vehicle that used to ride around and report potholes to be filled? According to their website, they aren't going out anymore. Has the program been suspended?

Zero Vision?

Unfilled potholes cost taxpayers a bundle

From Crains:

New York City should be quicker to repair potholes, which have cost taxpayers $138 million in settlements over the last six years, City Comptroller Scott Stringer said Thursday.

Mr. Stringer released an analysis that showed that the Belt Parkway had the most pothole claims involving vehicles over the six-year period —706— and Broadway was the street with the most pedestrian trip-and-fall claims at 195.

"If you happen to drive on the Belt, please know that you are in our thoughts and prayers," Mr. Stringer joked at a news conference in Greenwich Village.

Mr. Stringer said it took an average of 6.7 days for the Department of Transportation to complete a pothole work order in the first four months of fiscal year 2015, nearly triple the 2.4 days it took in the previous year.

City fails to maintain bike lane, causes injury

From the Daily News:

A bicyclist was injured when he hit a pothole and impaled his neck on a nearby fence in Queens on Sunday, authorities said.

The cyclist, a man who appeared to be in his 40s, was rolling along near Stockholm St. and Woodward Ave. in Ridgewood when he hit the hole and crashed about 11:42 a.m., officials said.

The man fell off his bike and hit his head on the ground, stood up, stumbled, and then fell onto a metal fence, impaling his neck, police sources said.

"He hit his head really hard," said one witness who declined to give his name. "Then, in a daze, he starts stumbling onto this fence. He falls onto the fence and skewers his neck. (It went) all the way through his neck. It was the most gruesome, weird thing I have ever seen."

Emergency responders cut off a portion of the waist-high fence in order to treat the man. He was taken to Wyckoff Heights Medical Center in stable condition, sources said.

Build bike lanes.
Encourage people to use them.
Fail to maintain them.
Repeat.

DOT & DEP point fingers at each other as pothole remains

From the Queens Chronicle:

A sinkhole in a travel lane of Queens Boulevard has grown by about one-third since it was brought to the attention of city officials on May 26, and still was unattended as of Monday afternoon.

The hole, which appears to be at least two feet deep and filled with trash, broken asphalt and other debris, is in the lefthand travel lane on the southeast-bound service road, just past where the road forms a T-junction with Woodhaven Boulevard, across from the Queens Center Mall.

The Chronicle first brought the hole to the attention of the city’s Department of Transportation on May 26, the day after Memorial Day.

Pictures of the hole were published in some editions of the Chronicle on May 28.

Forest Park potholes painted

From WPIX:

Neighbors in Queens are drawing attention to some recent work along Forest Part Drive. Portions were resurfaced and some potholes were filled. Others appear to have been painted over.

Potholes a-poppin'

From the Daily News:

Spring temps have sprung — and so has the city’s annual crop of bone-jarring potholes.

New Yorkers are complaining vociferously about the car-busting craters that proliferate every winter, wrecking rims and blowing out tires.

Department of Transportation Commissioner Polly Trottenberg acknowledged repairs this year were slower than usual because of the prolonged blasts of Arctic temps.

New technology has improved the Department of Transportation’s ability to make quick-fixes to the worst potholes even in frigid temps — but serious road repairs wait until spring.

It’s not just the weather slowing things down. The city’s also hampered by a longstanding policy of laying off roughly 200 assistant highway repairers every December — and hiring them back in March when pothole season hits its peak.

A "hole" lot of road repairs required

From WPIX:

DOT has up to 50 crews out in any 24-hour period, and according to DOT officials, they not only repairs locations reported to them but also other potholes encountered in between.

How the city fails to repair potholes

From the Queens Chronicle:

Two weeks after the Queens Chronicle published a story on two giant holes in the middle of 101st Street in Ozone Park, the city has filled them up.

How good of a job it did is another question.

The depressions in the street — bigger than normal potholes, but smaller than what are typically seen as a sinkhole — were located in the middle of the street about a third of the way between 101st and 103rd avenues. Each hole had a traffic cone in it to keep cars from hitting it.

That clearly hadn’t worked as the holes were filled with debris that appeared to have come from vehicles, including pieces of bumpers and headlights.

The holes were filled early last week, but a quick glance at the newly poured asphalt show tiny holes developing already, likely as a result of cars driving over the material before it was completely dry.

Main Street a mess

From the Queens Chronicle:

Downtown Flushing is hard enough to navigate with all the buses, people and general congestion, but add to that the poor condition of the streets and it becomes even more than problematic.

Dian Yu, executive director of the Downtown Flushing Business Improvement District, says the numerous potholes and uneven pavement along bumpy Main Street are actually interfering with business. “The conditions discourage people from coming downtown and it doesn’t look good,” Yu said on Monday.

Conditions a couple of weeks ago were so bad that southbound traffic was backed up to Northern Boulevard because cars were trying to avoid the deep crevices, one Chronicle reader reported.

Community Board 7 called the city Department of Transportation last Thursday to report the conditions and on Sunday a crew was out filling in some of the potholes.

But Yu believes the problem goes deeper than that. “I just met with the DOT and particularly pointed out Main Street and 37th Avenue, which is in horrible condition,” he said. “The pothole there looks like a crater.”

Although he said the agency was cooperative, Yu thinks Main Street needs a complete overhaul. “Lots of work needs to be done,” he said. “The road is old and needs a total repavement.”

Yu knows the major problem is financing a major repaving. He said he is working with Councilman Peter Koo (D-Flushing) on trying to secure funding.

Why should it be up to Yu and Koo to find funding? Shouldn't this kind of work be included in the agency's yearly budget?

5-day pothole rule proposed

From the Queens Courier:

One Astoria politician is looking to make the headache of potholes go away faster.

Councilmember Costa Constantinides recently announced he had introduced a bill into the City Council that would require potholes to be filled within five days or less.

“It will give peace of mind to those that call 3-1-1 that potholes will be repaired within a five day time frame demonstrating our responsiveness to their all,” Constantinides said. “Department of Transportation (DOT) data shows that we have been able to fill potholes effectively despite the harsh winter. [The bill] would codify good practice and set our expectations high for years to come.”

Constantinides’ legislation was introduced after Mayor Bill de Blasio and the DOT announced that they have made pothole repairs a top priority this year. De Blasio’s plan includes pothole blitzes, targeted repaving, road-surface material enhancements, and enhanced routing and tracking operations.

Our underfunded roads are in bad shape

From Crains:

It's not just Old Man Winter that's caused foot-deep potholes and pitted roadways on bridges. Years of underinvestment in New York's infrastructure have led to unsafe and congested roadways that cost New York motorists a total of $20.3 billion annually statewide, and approximately $2,300 per driver in the New York City area, according to a new report released by TRIP, a Washington, D.C.-based national transportation organization.

Greater investment in transportation at the local, state and federal levels could relieve traffic congestion, improve conditions, increase safety and support long-term economic growth in New York, the report argued. Roads that are in disrepair add expense to the maintenance of cars, and the delays they cause cost businesses time and money.

Seventy-four percent of major roads in New York City are in either poor or mediocre condition, the report found. Traffic congestion in the area is deteriorating, causing 59 annual hours of delay for the average city driver.

Reimbursement available for cars damaged by potholes

From WPIX:

If you suffered some car damage as a result of hitting one of the many potholes on New York City roads, you can file a claim with the city.

According to the City’s Comptroller office, you have to file the claim within 90 days of the incident. Drivers have the option to file the claim manually or electronically by going to the Comptroller’s website.

Even though a police report is not necessary, any documentation of proof will help your case.

For more information – visit the website.

WPU returns to CB7 to demand road repair

From the Times Ledger:

In the wake of a city decision to drop its eminent domain proceedings, property owners from Willets Point called on the city Department of Transportation to repair the streets of their neighborhood at Monday’s Community Board 7 meeting and had a unique guest speaker to help make their case.

Ralph Paterno, who owns property where the city wanted to build the first phase of a $3 billion redevelopment project for the area, took to the podium flanked by large posters of the pothole-strewn streets.

“The city will not be in the position to actually develop Willets Point anytime soon or perhaps ever,” he said. “So I and other Willets Point property owners are here tonight to publicly ask Community Board 7 to please help us put pressure on DOT to repair and maintain the Willets Point streets.”

The mayor’s office recently dropped the bid to condemn property in the 20-acre Phase 1 section of the plan, but without providing any details said the redevelopment project is still moving forward.

Sources with knowledge of a city-issued request for proposals said that Related Co. and Sterling Equities, run by the Wilpon family, were awarded a contract to build a 12-acre mall across from Citi Field.

But that was not on the minds of the property owners who spoke at the meeting, saying that while they paid taxes to the city, they were not getting the requisite services in return.

“Would you tolerate conditions in front of your house that looked like this?” Paterno asked before turning to CB 7 Chairman Gene Kelty. “Mr. Kelty, back in 2008 you actually chastised the people of Willets Point for not being vocal enough in demanding city services.”

A young man who came to the meeting then activated a CD player and Kelty’s voice from 2008 was immediately audible.

“I can tell you this — if someone was taking taxes from me and I wasn’t getting my services, I certainly wouldn’t be paying my taxes,” Kelty said on tape.