By Philip Newman
Queens is the location of five of the nine worst maintained roads in New York City, according to the Center for an Urban Future, a city planning agency.
The report also said it found that 9 percent of the borough’s bridges are what it called structurally deficient and that Queens public housing developments are in the worst condition of any place in the five boroughs.
The center said the Jackie Robinson Parkway, the Shore Front Parkway, the Cross Bay Parkway , Hempstead Turnpike and Queens Boulevard were poorly maintained.
The report documents other “infrastructure challenges” in Queens, such as 29.7 percent of the borough’s streets were in fair or poor condition. This is worse than Brooklyn, where 27.2 percent of streets were in fair or poor condition, but better than Manhattan (42.7 percent), Staten Island (40.1 percent) and the Bronx (34 percent).
New York City Housing Authority developments in Queens have the most deteriorated building facades and roofs, based on U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development inspections. The average building exterior, or envelope, in Queens, scored 69 compared to 78 in Staten Island and Brooklyn, 79 in Manhattan and 81 in the Bronx.
Queens is also the location of two NYCHA developments with the most facade capital needs. Pomonok in Flushing has $124.4 million in capital needs and Ravenswood in Long Island City has $108.5 million in capital needs.
Overall four NYCHA complexes in Queens are among the 11 NYCHA developments needing more than $70 million in facade repairs. The others are Queensbridge South and North in Long Island City.
Many of the oldest wastewater treatment plants are in eastern Queens, including Jamaica, which was built in 1943, and Bowery Bay, which dates back to 1939, near Flushing.
Reach contributing writer Philip Newman by e-mail at timesledgernews@cnglocal.com or phone at 718-260-4536.
