Next spring is start of combined sewer installation on Dean Street, especially near southeast block. Project will take until November 2025.

So what exactly is going on with the "Pacific Park Project Phase II – Combined Sewer Installation and Water Main Replacement on Dean Street between 6th Avenue and Vanderbilt Avenue"?

The short answer is: work will ramp up next spring and take until November 2025, with impacts unclear.

Then again, go to a city web site and it indicates, wrongly, that the project, was projected to be completed last July 17, as shown in the screenshot at right.

However, the work was supposed to start on October 24, 2022, according to an announcement posted by Brooklyn Community Board 8. 

According to a May 2022 presentation (also at bottom) by the Department of Design and Construction (DDC), the project should take 36 months. The budget is $15 million (not $5 million).

Some answers

I got some answers, not all complete, from Denisse Moreno of the Department of Design and Construction, to my queries about the remaining work. That's why a public meeting, such as another presentation to Community Board 8, would be useful.

The main work will be the installation of a combined sewer, which is expected to start in the spring of 2024. The full project is expected to be completed November 2025--roughly three years after the start.

While some merchants on Vanderbilt Avenue last summer expressed concern about a water main issue, Moreno said that 99% of the water main has been installed, so any issue is resolved.

Is most of the disruption over? "Anyone in the area who has questions or concerns about the project can contact the Community Construction Liaison (CCL) Ian Thornell at pacificparkprojectccl@gmail.com," she responded.

What further constraints are expected on traffic/traffic lanes on Dean Street between Carlton and Vanderbilt? "A car travel lane will be open during the installation to accommodate drivers."

Parking questions

How would it affect the parking garage on Dean Street just east of Carlton Avenue. "The CCL for the project will work with the garage to accommodate patrons," Moreno responded.

When I wrote recently about how the parking garage would manage with an expanded capacity, neighborhood activist Gib Veconi tweeted that the Dean Street project would surely test the garage procedures.

"I've had a similar project on my block for the last 3 years," he added. "Involves large staging areas, extended loss of parking lane access, and weeks of street closures. Can't imagine how it will work down there."

Stay tuned.

Project rationale

As I wrote last April, at a meeting in June 2022 of the Atlantic Yards Community Development Corporation, a Greenland USA representatiuve said the four new Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park buildings on the southeast block connect into existing infrastructure that the developer had already restored or improved.

However, as Veconi pointed out,  the DDC's project description specifically cited the new buildings. From the notice:

The purpose of the project is to (1) upgrade sewer sizes to provide residents in the newly constructed buildings with sufficient capacity for sanitary discharge and to convey storm water from the area, (2) to install new distribution water mains to help with peak demands, (3) to improve the sizing of distribution water mains, and (4) to improve fire protection in the area.