3,600 lane miles resurfaced in NYC

Two major projects in Queens highlight the city’s capital investments for 2010.
The city poured over $4.3 billion in capital investments into more than 775 projects in the last four years, including $633 million to resurface 3,600 lane miles of streets. In Queens, the city used $30 million to acquire a new asphalt plant in Corona and $43 million to reconstruct the Borden Avenue Bridge in Long Island City.
The new asphalt plant will increase the city’s use of recycled asphalt pavement and is expected to save close to $5 million annually in asphalt purchase costs.
Other improvements include sidewalk repairs, rebuilding of highway retaining walls, the installation of energy efficient lighting, state-of-the-art traffic signal controllers and other traffic management systems citywide.
Department of Transportation Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan also released the Annual Bridges and Tunnels Condition Report for 2010 on Tuesday, May 31. The report found that all of the city’s 787 bridges are in a state of good repair or have rehabilitation projects underway or planned.
“Investment in our city’s state of good repair is an investment in New York’s long-term safety, quality of life and its very economic competitiveness,” said Sadik-Khan. “Infrastructure usually gets attention only when something goes wrong, but our budget strategies must take this investment approach or no amount of costlier repairs will be able to catch up.”
According to the report, only four city bridges are considered to be in poor condition – down from 74 in the 1980s. The four structurally deficient spans include the Brooklyn Bridge, a pedestrian bridge over the FDR Drive, a crossing over the Cross Bronx Expressway and a passage over Prospect Park Lake.
Officials said that the improvements were made possible through long term investment plans and a funding commitment from the city and a partnership with the federal government. However, officials warned that a planned congressional reduction of 30 percent in transportation infrastructure funding could prove very costly down the road.
“At a time when we need to invest in the future of our cities and in our transportation infrastructure, Washington needs to understand the necessity and importance of funding these projects,” said Denise Richardson, managing director of the General Contractors Association of New York. “Anything less is unwise, irresponsible and unacceptable.”