By Ayala Ben-Yehuda
Bayside residents affected by the Alley Pond Drainage Improvement Project, public officials and engineers of the planned sewer reconstruction were scheduled to meet Friday to discuss the inconveniences caused to neighbors by the recently begun work near Queensborough Community College.
The multimillion-dollar project has recently begun soil sampling and tree removal in preparation for replacing sewer lines in an area plagued by chronic flooding.
Residents of the Lakeside Towers luxury high-rises on 46th Avenue have complained of being woken up early by construction noise and have said that the recent removal of trees along the Cross Island Parkway ramp has brought noise and pollution since the project began about two months ago. The first phase of the project is expected to last 18 months.
“It’s in nobody’s interest to be disruptive to the neighborhood,” said Don Black, president of the towers’ co-op board.
An on-site meeting was scheduled for Friday at 10 a.m. at the towers “to try to make (the project) less of a nuisance, aesthetically less of an eyesore,” said City Councilman Tony Avella (D-Bayside).
A meeting at Borough President Helen Marshall’s office last week brought assurances from engineers that work would begin at 8 a.m. instead of 7 a.m. in response to complaints of early morning noise, Avella said.
Another idea brought up at the meeting was the creation of a tall barrier to shield Lakeside dwellers from the staging area of the project, a former ballfield.
Residents had complained of the loss of the ballfield, but Community Board 11 Chairman Jerry Iannece, an early champion of the project, said a new ballfield and fence would be built after work was done.
“That field was in such bad shape and was rarely used because it was in such bad shape,” Iannece said.
“When this is all said and done, we’re going to have a beautiful field instead of a terrible field,” he said.
Iannece has reassured residents that the trees across from Lakeside Towers would eventually be replaced. The community board also brokered an agreement with the Department of Environmental Protection to spare trees slated for cutting along the Bayside Hills malls, so that the sewer lines slated for installation there could be rerouted elsewhere.
Iannece said that alternative would cost more because it would entail replacing a water main already under the street with a new sewer line and relocating the water main.
Avella said the relocation would add $1 million to the cost of the project and could mean that some owners of older homes would have to shoulder the cost of hooking up their houses to the new water main.
“We should all reach out to the homeowners and make sure they’re aware,” Avella said.
Reach reporter Ayala Ben-Yehuda by e-mail at Timesledger@aol.com or call 718-229-0300, Ext. 146.
