Source reader Renata Platenberg wants to know the status of Red Hook roadwork.
According to the Department of Public Works and WAPA, the construction in Red Hook is due to wrap up by the start of the school year.
The two departments have nearly concurrent projects in the area. WAPA is providing water and electric lines through Red Hook, which causes the roads to be dug up and conduit placed in the trenches; while DPW is working on a sidewalk and crosswalk project.
Unfortunately, recent torrential rains have caused the new pavement covering the waterlines to fail, setting WAPA’s project back by about two months, according to WAPA spokeswoman Cassandra Dunn.
However, Dunn says WAPA’s work in the area will be completed by the end of the month.
Unfortunately, WAPA’s delays impacted DPW’s project, according to its commissioner, Darryl Smalls.
DPW was scheduled to finish the project before the start of the school year.
Smalls described the crosswalks that will run between the ferry terminal and Ivanna Eudorra Kean High School as “raised like a speed hump. It is a calming measure. You roll over it – you feel difference in texture.”
Smalls met on site with WAPA’s project director Tuesday, and the two went over the schedule for completion.
“The [water lines] run east-west, the crosswalks go north-south, so we have to wait on the waterlines to be completed,” Smalls said. “WAPA is almost finished.”
In the meantime DPW is staging its project and commencing preparatory work.
“The objective is to have the work done by the start of school so it will not be impacting traffic,” Smalls said. “We are cognizant that school is starting “
