Flood Mitigation/Street Raising Project Update

I have just received the following email from Dan Mundy Jr., President of the Broad Channel Civic Association, regarding the status of the Broad Channel Flood Mitigation Project.

The Broad Channel street raising project --Captial Project--HWQ1182A --has been scheduled for ground breaking this spring 2013 after two years of design work. 

The community has been patiently waiting for this project, which will raise the elevation of the side streets to begin and to finally experience some relief from the tidal flooding that has plagued these blocks for years.  

The residents of this town have participated in dozens of meetings to help shape the design of this project into the final product which all parties involved were satisfied would be the best fit for this unique area. Block captains had worked along side the civic to help gather community input and in the end to collect signed forms of support to demonstrate a consensus of support for the project. 

After Sandy we were told that the agencies had been delayed in getting the bid out and that the final design was under review by NYC DEP.

Now after hundreds of thousands of dollars have been spent we are told that the NYC DDC and NYC DEP will have to redesign the drainage plan and that the delay will be,

 are you ready for this-

OVER A YEAR !!

 This is obviously an attempt to not just delay this project but to shelve it indefinitely. We are asking all of our elected officials to immediately take action to get this project prioritized and to have a timeline established that will see the project start this summer. 

If Hurricane Sandy proved one thing it is the need for "Hard Infrastructure" upgrades such as this street raising plan in order to make residents safer in the coming years where these flooding events are anticipated to be more frequent.

Dan Mundy

This is the first time I am being made aware of a year long delay in this project however, I was aware that DEP and DDC were re-examining the street drainage aspect of this project last summer but at that time I was assured that such efforts would not cause any undue delay of this flood mitigation project.  I have been unable to contact any DOT official regarding this project since Commissioner Maura McCarthy's abrupt retirement some weeks ago.

A copy of this posting will be forwarded to the Queens Borough President, Assemblyman Phil Goldfeder and Councilman Eric Ulrich and followed up on.

We will keep you advised of any and all information as it becomes available.