Construction of the pedestrian/vehicle guard rail project along Cross Bay Boulevard, which was approved by the City Council last June, has started.
The rail is being installed through the Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge between Broad Channel and the Joseph P. Addabbo Bridge. According to the New York City Department of Transportation, the rails will extend from the bridge to East 1st Road in Broad Channel.
At this time the barriers have been staged in several areas along Cross Bay Boulevard and are presently awaiting work crews to complete final placement and anchoring
I'll leave the aesthetics of the new guard rail system for you to decide but Dan Guarino's "Broad Channel Bits" column in this weeks WAVE stated that...
Comments on the blocks of wash-gray plastic crash barriers now being installed along Cross Bay Boulevard in the Wildlife Refuge are already coming in. “Very attractive,” said one person, “like you’re driving up to the border of North Korea. But at least it got done, and it will save lives.”
(Note: The barriers are not plastic but are actually pre-cast concrete barriers.)
How is concrete ALL along the strip any safer than a tree spread out feet apart from one another?
ReplyDeleteThe impetus for this project was to protect those adults and children utilizing the pathway along east side of Cross Bay Blvd within the wildlife preserve from vehicles running off the road.
ReplyDeleteThe basic design of the "Jersey" profile concrete barrier will redirect a vehicle that hits it, away from the blacktop pathway that may be occupied by adults and children alike...joggers, runners, skaters, dog walkers, etc., keeping the out of control vehicle in the roadway.
So, now to be the devil's advocate:
ReplyDeletePro -- to protect non-motor-vehicle users of the pathway, usaully pedestrians, cyclists, runners, skaters... and me.
Con -- instead infrequent accidents that have the probability of hitting a tree (very bad), or running into the bushes (not always so bad and could actually be non-lethal), or striking pathway users (God awful, especially if it's me), to now hitting the barriers, possibly bouncing off and back into the roadway possibly striking additional motor vehicles traveling at high rates of speed, and increasing the likelihood that the driver will be severely injured or even killed.
Quite the conundrum indeed.
Hmmmmmmmmm ?
ReplyDeleteI absolutely HATE the way they look , it took such a beautiful, peaceful,natural looking space and made it look like the Major Deegan ( Ugh ! ) .....Buuuuuuuut, ive seen these barriers work, and the pedestrians, joggers,bikers, etc deserve that safety . MAYBE people will slow down ????????????
except for when the path ends and those users are forced back into the street for the last half mile.
ReplyDeleteWhy did they stop the installation?
ReplyDeleteWhy did they stop the installation?
ReplyDelete