By Alexander Dworkowitz
A city project to install sewers along the Whitestone Expressway has temporarily been put on hold after tons of soil were found to be contaminated with petroleum, a city official said.
About 50 truckloads of the soil sit in an industrial area of Flushing near the intersection of Higgins Street and the northbound Whitestone Expressway service road, where the soil was found.
Work has been stopped for nearly a month, said John Spavins, a spokesman for the city Department of Design and Construction.
The $4.2 million project includes the installation of storm and sanitary sewers along five blocks of the service road from Higgins to Farrington Street and along Higgins Street itself, a one-block road.
The area is dominated by warehouses, and there are no homes facing the sewer work.
While the service road is relatively heavily traveled, Higgins Street is desolate.
According to regulations, sewer lines cannot run through contaminated soil. When such soil is discovered, it must be transferred to a waste site designed for toxins.
The city tests the soil before every project, but in this case missed detecting the contamination until work was under way, Spavins said. Such a mistake occasionally occurs with city projects, he said.
Flooding has been a problem along the Whitestone Expressway service road for many years. While no one lives in the area of the current project, a larger sewer project just to the north was completed late last year along part of the service road that is home to shopping areas as well as houses.
A third project is expected to begin in May. That work involves installing seepage basins in the blocks just to the east of the service road from 25th Avenue to 21st Avenue in Whitestone.
Residents of that area have complained of major flooding for decades, and eagerly anticipate the seepage basins designed at alleviating the problem
It was not immediately clear whether the delay with the sewer line would have any affect on the construction of the seepage basins.
“There may be a concern vis-a-vis traffic,” Spavins said. “You wouldn't want one to be finished before the other one is started.”
But Spavins thought such a scenario was unlikely, noting the two projects have different contractors.
Instead, the main concern was simply what to do with the tons and tons of dirt, some of which are covered, some that are not.
The city is currently testing the dirt. As of this week, only petroleum, the most common soil contaminant, had been found.
A subcontractor has been hired to get rid of the soil at a New Jersey site that accepts dirt contaminated with petroleum.
But the site will not accept dirt containing other contaminants.
“If it's something other than petroleum, we have to find another dumping site,” Spavins said.
In such a scenario, the dirt might have to sit for at least another month. If the dirt has only petroleum, it could be gone in a week, Spavins said.
Reach reporter Alexander Dworkowitz by e-mail at Timesledger@aol.com or call 718 229-0300 Ext. 141.
