By Chris Fuchs
Construction on Linden Place, a road in College Point that traverses Flushing Airport and has remained closed to traffic because of persistent flooding for more than a decade, is scheduled to begin this summer.
The road between 23rd Avenue and 28th Avenue could be opened as early as 2003, said Marilyn Bitterman, district manager of Community Board 7.
In 1998 then U.S. Rep. Thomas Manton, whose district covered Flushing, secured $5.25 million in a transportation bill that was to be put toward the refurbishment of the roadway, said Josh Straka, a spokesman for U.S. Rep. Joseph Crowley (D-Jackson Heights), Manton’s successor. The bill, he said, expires in 2003.
The closing of Linden Place, which slices through Flushing Airport, gave College Point residents one less route to travel, causing more congestion on such roadways as the Whitestone Expressway, Bitterman said. But the road conditions were so deplorable, she said, that the state had little choice but to close it off.
The shutdown of Linden Place has been felt particularly by College Point residents, Bitterman said, who have been forced to use other roadways like the heavily traveled College Point Boulevard and the Whitestone Expressway to get to their destinations.
A spokesman for the city Department of Transportation did not return a phone call seeking answers to specific questions about the project by presstime. But Bitterman, whose community board covers College Point, said construction was expected to begin sometime this summer.
Because the road is built on marshland, Bitterman said, the first step in refurbishing the thoroughfare is to surcharge it, a process that requires the scraping up of the roadbed. She likened this to squeezing out all of the water from tofu before it is cooked. In all, this can take upwards of a year to complete, she said.
Another consideration that has in fact postponed the construction on the road for the last 10 years is the wetlands that run close to the street. Before any construction is done, the state must decide what is and what is not wetlands, she said.
For now, however, Linden Place still remains shut, bolted by a fence that is padlocked at 28th Avenue. The other entranceway is marked by a chaotic display of weeds and brush.
Reach reporter Chris Fuchs by e-mail at Timesledgr@aol.com or call 229-0300, Ext. 156.
