Though some fencing around project sites will end after new fences go up around railyard, construction work expected to add complications. Could last 40 months.

This is the eighth of ten articles on the 6/7/22 meeting of the Atlantic Yards Community Development Corporation. The first concerned the affordable housing timetable. The second assessed an estimated 2031 completion date. The third addressed the impact of a potential Greenland default. The fourth concerned expectations of 421-a benefits. The fifth concerned the deadline for the Urban Room. The sixth addressed timing for the school. The seventh concerned plans for the platform. The ninth concerned plans for B12/B12 affordable housing. The tenth concerned the Open Meetings Law.

Platform construction will not only curtail sidewalk and crosswalk access around Block 1120--bounded by Atlantic Avenue and Pacific Street, and Sixth and Carlton avenues--but also eliminate parking on that north side of Pacific Street.

Scott Solish of Greenland USA, which owns nearly all of Greenland Forest City Partners, described the MPT--maintenance and protection of traffic--which involves a construction fence around the block.

Yes, he said, parking on Pacific Street will be eliminated; he spoke with representatives of NYPD's 78th Precinct, who told him most of the cars on Pacific are not related to NYPD employees.

He spoke before the Community Notice, below, was issued two days ago, predicting work starting Monday, June 20.

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New pathways

On Sixth Avenue, Solish said, pedestrians will be directed to the west side of the street, where the newly restored sidewalk outside of 18 Sixth Ave. (B4, aka Brooklyn Crossing) is now open.

Also, construction fences on Atlantic Avenue near that building will be removed, increasing access. The east side of Carlton Avenue will be open.

Ramp into railyard from Sixth Avenue

On Sixth Avenue between Pacific Street and Atlantic Avenue is a small driveway used by the Long Island Rail Road for a ramp into the railyard for employees and maintenance crews.

Entrance for construction work

The main gates for the trucks delivering materials for the platform will be on Atlantic Avenue, at Sixth Avenue and at Carlton Avenue. 

There also will be secondary gates on Pacific Street.

Timing question

"So approximately how long [do] you project that that construction fence will be in place?" asked Daniel Kummer, Acting Chair for the meeting.

"We project that it will be there for approximately 36 to 40 months," Solish said.

That's schedule creep, and a hint that 36 months--as previously stated, and in the recent announcement, above--is overoptimistic.

Balancing it out?

"I think we can anticipate that will that will become a subject at [bi-monthly] Quality of Life meetings," Kummer said, "but we will deal with the issues as they come."

"Yeah, I mean the positive thing as we put this fence up, is that the other fences in this area are coming down," Solish said, "so the fence work in this area will be limited to Block 1120."

By spring 2023, the fences outside the B12 and B13 sites (615 Dean St. & 595 Dean St.,) will come down, as the projects are completed.

Solish noted that those sites also would supply additional parking. There will be 455 more spaces, as indicated in the graphic below, on top of 303 spaces--all entering the same, sometimes congested entrance ramp on Dean Street.

Additional complications

Director Gib Veconi noted that, beginning this fall, the New York City Department of Design and Construction (DDC) will begin a water and sewer replacement project on Dean Street from Sixth Avenue to Vanderbilt Avenue and then north on Vanderbilt Avenue to Pacific Street, around the Atlantic Yards site.

"I'm actually living next to such a water and sewer project on my street right now and I can say it's very disruptive," he said, adding that his street is not nearly as dense as Dean Street.

"And this project is going to be in be under way on Dean Street at exactly the time that B12 and B13 are going to have move-ins," he said, and while the mostly underground Chelsea Piers fieldhouse and fitness center will be constructed.

At the garage, he said, "there's now a significant problem with traffic back-up," he said, and those people currently parking on Pacific will have to find a new place to park. So all of that is going to make conditions very very challenging over the next several years. The DDC project is also expected to go on for for two years."

As described in April

That means, he said, there will be much discussion at the bi-monthly meetings.

"There always is," Solish said.

Coordination question

Kummer asked if the city DDC had coordinated with Greenland, in terms of the timing.

"No," said Solish. "They do it on their own schedule and process and none of the buildings are directly connecting into the new infrastructure that's being installed." 

He said the four Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park buildings on Block 1129--the southeast block--connect into existing infrastructure that the developer had already restored or improved in the Pacific Street area. "So it is a neighborhood enhancement that supports the overall development and growth of the Prospect Heights area."

"I would point out the DDC's project description specifically cites the buildings at Atlantic Yards as part of the justification for the project," Veconi said.

"Okay," responded Solish.