By Rebecca Henely
The brutal snowstorms of last winter have wreaked havoc on many city streets, but those who drive on Roosevelt Avenue in Woodside should be having less of a bumpy ride.
Last week, City Councilman Jimmy Van Bramer (D-Sunnyside) and Maura McCarthy, Queens commissioner for the city Department of Transportation, announced that Roosevelt Avenue between 51st and 58th streets has been completely resurfaced.
McCarthy said before the resurfacing the DOT had to come out to the stretch of road 10 times in the past to fix the potholes and other problems with Roosevelt Avenue.
“I do think that this is a nice victory for Woodside,” Van Bramer said.
The councilman said he had gotten multiple complaints about the condition of the road, which led him to contact the DOT. He said the section of the avenue, which runs beneath the No. 7 subway train, is one of the busiest near his district and a priority since it is close to the Woodside Library, at 54-22 Skillman Ave.; PS 11, at 54-25 Skillman Ave.; and St. Sebastian’s School at 39-76 58th St.
The councilman added that he had often used the road traveling from his Sunnyside office to different places in Woodside and remembered having to constantly drive to avoid the holes in the avenue.
“There are a lot of folks walking, maybe riding their bikes and definitely driving their cars,” Van Bramer said.
McCarthy said the avenue was in poor condition due to constant freezing and thawing during the winter and a series of heavy rains, which caused numerous potholes along the stretch. McCarthy said the resurfacing was done during the course of one week at night so as not to disturb the local businesses during working hours.
The DOT said it has refilled 400,000 potholes, including 97,300 of them in Queens, throughout the city in fiscal year 2010 and plans to resurface 1,000 lane miles throughout the city.
“Our streets are the gateways to our neighborhoods and they need to be in a state of good repair to keep pace with the demands placed on them,” DOT Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan said in a statement.
McCarthy said the DOT had another 13 lane miles to do within Community Board 2’s borders. Community Board 2 covers Long Island City, Sunnyside, Woodside and a part of Maspeth.
“We are getting there as quickly as we can,” McCarthy said of fixing the roads.
Reach reporter Rebecca Henely by e-mail at rhenely@cnglocal.com or by phone at 718-260-4564.
