Tidal Street Flooding Update - October 7, 2010

Earlier this afternoon we received the following email from Ms. Alexandra Rosa, Chief of Staff, Office of the Queens Borough President.

dateThu, Oct 7, 2010 at 2:38 PM
subjectUpdate
mailed-byqueensbp.org

Good news. As you know the funding for the project became available in July. As of the end of September, the Survey was completed. We had heard that a design team would not be on board until January. Instead, I can report that a design team has been selected-RBA Group- and work on preliminary concepts has already begun. DDC is working to finalize its timeline agreement with RBA and is working to incorporate incentives for early delivery of final design documents. RBA is scheduled to deliver preliminary concepts in the first week of December that will be presented to our Task Force for feedback. This is a significant improvement in the timeline that was presented at our last meeting.

Alexandra Rosa
Chief of Staff
Office of the Queens Borough President
120-55 Queens Boulevard, Room 243

Ms. Rosa states that the information in her email update regarding this issue represents "...a significant improvement in the timeline that was presented at our last meeting." 

For the record, our last meeting with the Queens Borough President's Office took place on August 11, 2010 at which time, according to our minutes of that meeting,  Mr.Tony Pollio from DDC stated that his "...office received this CPI (Capital Project Initiative) about one month ago and we feel that it will take approximately another three (3) months in order to hire a consultant to assist in the design phase of this project."

Mr. Pollio then stated that, in his estimation, "...the design phase of the project should start in January of 2011 and that such design phase should take approximately one (1) year to complete with actual construction to start sometime in 2012."

According to Ms. Roasa's email update the following actions, taken by the city since since our August 11, 2010 meeting, constitute the "significant" improvement in this project's timeline.

1. the survey work in this regard was completed at the end of September 2010, and,
2. A design team (The RBA Group) has been retained by the city and has commenced preliminary design concepts to be presented to our group in early December 2010.
3. DDC is working to finalize its timeline agreement with RBA and is working to incorporate incentives for early delivery of final design documents.

The above actions notwithstanding, Ms. Rosa does not indicate that there has been any movement in the project's estimated start date of construction, which absent any evidence to the contrary, we must assume still remains the spring of 2012. 

Thus, only if DDC is able to provide The RBA Group with incentives to expedite "finalization" of design documents to allow for the originally promised construction start date of July 2011, will significant project timeline improvement be realized.

Additonally, it is somewhat disconcerting that Ms. Rosa has not provided an update regarding promised efforts to obtain the previously "emergency declaration" for this Capital Project.

As an aside, according to their website, the RBA Group retained for the design of this project, "...was founded in 1968 as a dynamic partnership of engineers, architects, planners and environmentalists who worked together in the creation of new towns across the United States. For over forty years, the company has continued its mission of innovative, quality services that work towards enhancing the quality of life. Currently, The RBA Group is a multidisciplinary firm that provides services while never losing sight of our overall goal – to provide innovative solutions for our clients that meet the needs of each project while serving to improve the lives of those we touch with our work. With offices in New Jersey, New York and Maryland, we have a combined staff of nearly 250 talented engineers, planners, architects, technicians and support personnel working on everything from small, local projects to massive infrastructure assignments."

The RBA Group maintains its New York City office in Manhattan at:

New York City

27 Union Square West, 4th Floor

New York, NY 10003-3366

Phone: 212.741.8090

Fax: 212.633.1205

We will you keep you updated.