New Department of Buildings map shows after-hours variances, but it doesn't include all Pacific Park work

In an effort to heighten transparency, the city Department of Buildings (DOB) recently released a new interactive tool to map after-hours variances, thus identifying potentially disruptive constructive work beyond the normal permitting times of 7 am through 6 pm weekdays.

And while  it includes some work at the Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park site--notably the B4 and B15 construction sites, as shown in the screenshot at right, as of 11/1/19--it doesn't include all such work.

(Note: there are no after-hours permits for those sites this weekend.)

Nor do the extant permits offer full candor on the reason for such construction work, for example claiming "public safety" when that could have easily been extended simply to expediency.

City Land, in a 10/31/19 article, explained:

In 2018, Buildings issued 18,866 initial after-hours variance permits – down 24 percent from 2012, when 25,005 after-hours variance permits were issued. After-hours variance permits are issued for specific dates, and need to be renewed if construction work needs to continue after hours. As of the day of the press release, there were 1,056 active construction projects that had after-hours variance permits.
In 2018, 311 received 3,729 public complaints about construction work outside of normal business hours. A goal of the new after-hours variance map is to allow anyone interested to check for themselves if work in their area is permitted after hours.

Drilling down

As shown in the screenshot at right, for B15 (aka 37 Sixth Avenue, aka 664 or 662 Pacific Street), the start date for the permit, including weekend work, was 10/26/19 and the end date was 11/2/19.

As of this morning, the permit has not been renewed, but, according to the two-week Construction Updates for the project, the developer plans to seek permits for Saturday work at both B15 and B4 through the end of the year.

From the most recent permit for B15:

Apply Reason: PUBLIC SAFETY
Approved: TRAFFIC CONGESTION (PEDESTRIAN AND/OR VEHICULAR)
Description of Work: CONCRETE WORK, DRILLING OF SOE PILES, EXCAVATION, SHEETING, LAGGING AND STEEL RAKER/WALER INSTALLATION. REBAR PLACEMENT, WATERPROOFING AND USE OF CRANE CN# 709-19

Then again, a representative of the project's master developer offered a broader reason for such after-hours variances.

Why do they need to work on Saturdays, I asked, at a July Quality of Life meeting.

"It’s just in order to try to get the project built," said Scott Solish of Greenland USA, who added that they tried "to do it with consideration of the neighborhood."

What's missing

As a project neighbor pointed out on Twitter, not all such disruptive work is necessarily on the map.

In addition, the after hours work for State projects such as Pacific Park may not be reflected or incomplete. No blue dot for the cement trucks working at 9pm adjacent to the LIRR yard.

— Carl Riddle (@CarlRiddle) November 1, 2019

Indeed, such work at the B12 and B13 site was disclosed, for example, in the most recent two-week Construction Update, but it has not been on the map.