Results tagged “infrastructure”

While building tenants were allowed back to their apartments and stores after a water main broke in Tribeca yesterday morning, the clean-up will take a while. Sean Hershkowitz, an owner of the terrific Balloon Saloon, said, "Everything has been totally destroyed. All of our inventory was in the basement," while A Uno clothing store owner Ann Benedetto lamented about computer equipment and clothing in her basement, "I have product here for fall that’s soaking." The main that broke at Duane and West Broadway was from 1870; the DEP told the Tribeca Tribune that it was just old. DEP Commissioner Steven Lawitts said, "Cast iron, after many years of freezes and thaws and street vibrations will break if not replaced." He added that even hough the city spend $200-300 million to replace old water pipes, "Unfortunately we can’t be everywhere with programmed replacement, so we still have these random occurrences, which we have to treat just as quickly as we can.”

Mayor Bloomberg, Senator Schumer and Senator Gillibrand announced that $261 million in federal stimulus money will go towards NYC infrastructure projects. The projects getting direct stimulus funds include rehabilitation of the Brooklyn Bridge (widening ramps, painting) and of the St. George Ferry Terminal ramps and upgrading the pedestrian bridge from East Harlem to Ward's Island. Bloomberg said, "The federal stimulus dollars mean that we can move projects that would have been on the chopping block and get shovels in the ground quickly -- putting thousands of people to work and rebuilding our infrastructure." You can also track the projects with the city's new stimulus project tracker.

Senator Charles Schumer is wasting no time: He tells the Daily News, "Washington can't do what it did in Herbert Hoover's time and twiddle its thumbs." Noting how Obama said that states must be helped during this economic downturn, the senior Senator from NY says Obama should help New York with money for "affordable housing, transportation and help hiring for cops." City Council member John Liu, chair of the Council's transportation committee, added that a bailout is needed for the MTA, "It would be a small, small fraction of the $700 billion bailout of banks or anything they may be thinking for General Motors," while member David Yassky said, "The best thing is to invest in infrastructure that will support economic growth for years." Representative Jerold Nadler puts it bluntly, "We want as big a stimulus package as possible."

The NY Times wonders if more cities will allow public infrastructure to be privately financed. Investment banks have "an estimated $250 billion war chest" as the U.S.'s infrastructure crumbles. Mayor Bloomberg has touted the need for more federal funding ("we have an infrastructure crisis"). While the banks tells the Times, “Ten to 20 years from now infrastructure could be larger than real estate,” one big question is whether they'll get the returns they want. Still, there could be an upside for the public: A Northeastern University professor told Reuters earlier this month, "Elected officials often shortchange funding of maintenance because they don't want to increase user fees or taxes to pay for it. Their election cycle is four years. They can pass it on to someone else's watch."

     

Starting this September the History Channel will be airing their new series, Sandhogs. The eleven episodes will focus on the people and the projects that maintain New York City's infrastructure, from the past to the present. They say, "For more than 150 years, a legendary band of mostly unknown urban miners has toiled in obscurity far below the streets of New York. They are the builders of water and sewage tunnels, subway systems and bridge footings, and underappreciated elements of the city's infrastructure."

A year ago today, a 24" steam pipe installed in 1924 broke and caused a massive explosion on Lexington Avenue and East 41st Street. Right after the blast, the Mayor called it a "failure of infrastructure."

With talk of the MTA raising fares again after recently raising them (well, not the bus and subway base fare, but still), there are some suggestions about what the MTA can do instead.

At the southeast corner of Lafayette and Spring in the SoHo-Nolita area, some sort of event (explosion?) occurred to knock off the heavy grates off the surface. The FDNY and NYPD closed down the street; it didn't look like a steampipe explosion or water main break (no water) - it looks more like an underground transformer vault (if anyone knows what these are, let us know in comments) explosion. The 6 line does run underneath, but there do not seem to be any delays.

It's Mike and Arnie, together again! The Time magazine co-cover pols, Mayor Michael Bloomberg and California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, made a Los Angeles appearance with Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell to announce the creation of a "nonpartisan organization that will advocate for more, and smarter, federal spending on infrastructure." The Mayor and maybe presidential candidate slammed the government, referenced the New Deal and more. Some of his statements:

In politics, winning elections and protecting a party majority is more important than solving problems and so short-term pork invariably wins over long-term investing and special interests win over the rest of us...

Continue reading "Infrastructure is Sexy to Mayor Bloomberg"