West 12th Road, pictured here, has been plagued by flooding for years. Photo Courtesy Donna Kramer
For Broad Channel residents who have been plagued for decades by constant flooding, some long-awaited relief may be on the way.
City officials told civic leaders this week that the Department of Design and Construction is approximately one to two weeks away from issuing a request for bids for a street-raising project that residents say has long been needed to mitigate the water that can rush onto the streets, and into homes, when there is even the slightest rainfall, as well as with lunar tides.
“We have pre-Roman Empire infrastructure,” said Sophia Vailakis-DeVirgilio, whose home is on West 12th Road in Broad Channel. “There’s really no infrastructure. They put pavement over the sand, and there’s no real infrastructure like you have in Manhattan or Brooklyn to keep the streets from collapsing.”
Residents also noted that the years of flooding set Broad Channel up to be extremely vulnerable to the storm surge from Hurricane Sandy. The neighborhood was devastated by the hurricane, and, for example, numerous homes along West 12th Road remain unoccupied because residents have had to pay for such extensive repairs. Vailakis-DeVirgilio, her husband and daughter are still waiting to move back into their home.
In addition to the extensive flooding caused by Sandy, the tidal surge brought sewage from area treatment plants to the neighborhood and home fuel oil tanks’ contents spilled into the neighborhood’s waterways.
The capital project, for which residents have advocated for years and about which individuals have attended dozens of meeting, will raise the elevation of West 11th, 12th and 13th roads in an effort to provide some relief from flooding. The push for the city project became especially apparent following the 2010 nor’easter that brought another round of devastating flooding to the area.
“At that point, we told the city we’re living in an unsafe environment and what are they going to do about it?” Vailakis-DeVirgilio said.
“After the nor’easter, things really started to move – Queens Borough President Helen Marshall held a press conference, and we had meetings with DDC and others,” she continued. “It seemed to be getting underway, and it was supposed to have started in 2012. Then the hurricane delayed it.”
Assemblyman Phil Goldfeder (D-Rockaway Park) said his office is working hard to ensure the project happens – and happens soon.
“We’re following this very closely,” Goldfeder said. “It’s even more of a priority today, and I won’t let the city or any agency drop the ball on this.”
By Anna Gustafson
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