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Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park FAQ, timeline, and infographics (pinned post)

From the latest Construction Update: expect (noisy) Saturday work all year at B15 and B4 sites

The latest Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park Construction Update (bottom), covering the two weeks beginning Monday, June 10, was circulated at 5:08 pm yesterday (lead time) by Empire State Development (ESD) after preparation by Greenland Forest City Partners.

There are some contrasts from the previous update, notably long-term Saturday work at the two parcels where excavation and foundation work proceeds before vertical construction, B15 (664 Pacific) and B4 (18 Sixth). From the document:
Saturday work permit applications will be submitted to DOB [Department of Buildings] each week through the end of the calendar year for ongoing foundation and construction work. If received, residents should expect site work between the hours of 9 am – 5 pm.
On the one hand, that's progress in transparency, given a previous pattern of belated or incomplete disclosures of such noisy, disruptive work. On the other, it's hardly clear that this is needed for "public safety," as per previous justification, as opposed to business reasons.

As I've written, state documents did disclose that "weekend work may be required on one weekend day for approximately 50 percent of the weekends over the course of construction," but also claimed, contradictorily, "project sponsors would keep nighttime and weekend work to a minimum."

Note, according to the NYC Noise Code, there's a restriction on weekends, lowering noise limits within 200 feet of a residence to 80 decibels. Otherwise, the city noise code, as far as I can tell, does not set a limit, but, if there are complaints, an inspector will look at whether the Noise Mitigation Plan is being followed and/or needs modification.

Other new work

At the East Portal of the Vanderbilt Yard, at Atlantic and Vanderbilt avenues, the MPT (maintenance and protection of traffic) will be removed, allowing the travel lanes and sidewalks on both blocks to be restored. Also, the restoration of the Atlantic Avenue Median will begin.

At the B3 site, 38 Sixth Avenue, a rig will be used for minor facade repairs.

Some work, while not marked as new (in red), repeats previous announcements, which implies that the work did not previously begin, and thus could begin.

That includes mechanical demolition at 700 Atlantic Avenue, the last "bump" building in the railyard, as well as installation of the Sixth Avenue Stair Tower structural steel frame at the railyard.

Continued night/weekend work

At the railyard, night and weekend work is expected to continue. From the document:
  • Weekend (Saturday daytime) electrical utility installations, site restoration, and Track Restoration work that require LIRR track outages are expected to continue in the yard.
  • LIRR may be utilizing portions of the yard lighting for security reasons. This is expected to continue through June.
  • Contractor plans to continue to work second shift to excavate and install necessary TMSC (train toilet servicing cleanouts) between 6 pm and 3 am pending LIRR support availability for this reporting period. Appropriate noise, light, and dust mitigation practices will be observed.

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