Repairing Hurricane Sandy Damage
Nearly two years after Hurricane Sandy’s storm surge flooded and damaged its equipment, the Metropolitan Avenue Bridge in East Williamsburg is getting a permanent repair.
Crews contracted by the city’s Department of Transportation (DOT) took the initial steps last weekend in the 21 month-long project to install new mechanical equipment and an electrical system for the drawbridge crossing the English Kills, according to information Queens Community Board 5 provided to the Times Newsweekly.
Heavily used by people traveling between northern Brooklyn and western Queens- including those on the Q54 and Q59 bus lines, which cross the span-the bridge opens and closes 500 times a year to accommodate marine traffic, according to the DOT. Most of the marine vehicles are barges carrying fuel oil to and from a nearby storage facility.
When Hurricane Sandy struck the Eastern Seaboard on Oct. 29- 30, 2012, the superstorm sent a surge of salt water into New York Harbor and connecting waterways, including the Newtown Creek and English Kills. Parts of the Metropolitan Avenue Bridge became submerged, and its mechanical and electrical systems were exposed to the highlycorrosive salt water.
After the storm, the DOT installed a temporary electrical system to keep the bridge operational. This project will permanently fix the bridge’s mechanisms and include the installation of a brand new electrical system.
The vast majority of the work will take place during overnights and weekends, so no weekday closures are anticipated, according to the DOT. One to two lanes on the bridge in both directions may be closed as work progresses.
The span will be shut between Tuesday, Oct. 28, and Friday, Oct. 31, from 12:01 a.m. to 5 a.m., and on Saturday, Nov. 1, from 1 to 6 a.m.
Additionally, one of the bridge’s two pedestrian sidewalks will stay open at all times.
The DOT indicated the bridge will be temporarily closed for testing just before the project’s conclusion, which is projected to be in about June 2016.
Meanwhile, the DOT continues periodic maintenance on another nearby span, the Grand Street Bridge over the Newtown Creek between Maspeth and East Williamsburg. The agency closed the bridge on three Saturdays this month to make deck and mechanical repairs.
This week, the DOT announced it would shut the Grand Street Bridge again the next four consecutive Saturdays-Oct. 25 and Nov. 1, 8 and 15-from 7 a.m. to 1 p.m. for deck grating repairs.
As previously reported, the DOT plans to eventually replace the two-lane, more than 110-yearold span, which is too narrow to accommodate passing trucks or buses. However, the project has been delayed until at least the 2020 fiscal year.
Reportedly, the DOT must reassess how to replace the bridge as it is located in a coastal flood zone- and also flooded during Sandy.
