By Michael Morton
“I've been after them,” he said of the trucks, which he said are part of a construction project at the Ronald McDonald House in New Hyde Park.
Rumelt said he is concerned that the trucks will tear up the vulnerable street, where the city has been promising an improvement project for the area for years, and damage the water pipes that run from residents' homes to the city's main lines.
Just such a scenario occurred years ago, Rumelt said, costing him $2,500 in repairs since pipes running from the main line to private homes fall under the jurisdiction of the owner, not the city.
Rumelt is not alone in complaining that trucks, known by some as “earth-shakers,” do not use proper truck routes in the city. In July, the city Department of Transportation began a yearlong study of truck routes, recently surveying the city's residents and holding public forums last month for each borough.
In Queens, those surveyed said trucks contributed to dangerous pedestrian and vehicular conditions and to air and noise pollution, according to the DOT's Web site. And 64 percent of respondents said their streets were physically unable to accommodate truck traffic.
In southeast Queens, the streets are particularly at risk, community leaders said.
“Trucks are moving on streets that can't support them,” Councilman Leroy Comrie (D-St. Albans) said. In southeast Queens, he said, the high water table meant that roads had to be constructed with less roadbed. As a result, the road surfaces are more vulnerable to the pressure exerted by trucks.
Comrie, one of the elected officials who asked for the DOT study, said he had personal experience with trucks causing damage. In 2000, he said, a truck ran into an overhead electrical wire and knocked out power in his neighborhood. Such incidents remain a problem.
“I have residents once a week that have to call one utility or the other,” Comrie said.
Responding to the complaints of Comrie and others, the DOT hired Edwards and Kelcey, an engineering firm based in Manhattan, to conduct a $1.3 million study to determine what steps were needed to alleviate the effects of illegal or unnecessary truck traffic, the DOT's Web site said.
The city's traffic rules define a truck as any vehicle that is used to transport goods having either two axles and six tires or three or more axles. According to the rules, trucks must follow specifically approved routes unless they begin or end their trip on an unapproved street.
Community leaders in southeast Queens said that in theory, truck drivers receive route directions from their dispatchers, who supposedly know the rules. So far, that seems not the case, according to those familiar with the study's preliminary results.
“They found that neither the dispatchers nor the companies nor the drivers themselves knew the regulations,” said Richard Hellenbrecht, chairman of Community Board 13, at a recent public board meeting. “The DOT has been adamantly against putting up non-truck route signs,” he said.
But a spokesman for the DOT said such signs were not necessarily the answer. “With negative signs you would have a sign on every street in the city,” he said.
In addition to a lack of signs and trucker awareness, community leaders also point to a lack of enforcement in an area that has a lot of activity for police to monitor.
“We don't have that kind of staffing at the precinct to do that,” said Sally Martino-Fisher, district manager of Community Board 13, referring to the 105th Precinct. But she said a way must be found to resolve the truck route problem.
“The heavy-duty truck traffic adds to the demise of the streets,” she said. “We need industry, I realize that, but we're taking a beating in this community board.”
Reach reporter Michael Morton by e-mail at news@timesledger.com or by calling 718-229-0300, Ext. 154.
