After numerous complaints from residents, damaged sewers (catch basins), manholes and fire hydrants across Ridgewood, Glendale, Maspeth and Middle Village are in line for repair, according to Community Board 5 (CB 5).
The community board has been receiving reports about the unsafe and potentially dangerous conditions and have filed calls to the city’s 311 hotline about the locations several times since the beginning of 2016. Some locations, however, do not appear on the 311 site.
“We have had numerous conditions requiring DEP (Department of Environmental Protection) repair that have gone unrepaired for one month or longer and those include sunken-in catch basins and in some cases fire hydrants being knocked over,” said Gary Giordano, district manager of CB 5. “In some cases we have conditions that have gone undone for more than six months. And several instances where the repairs have not been done in a timely fashion and the condition poses a danger to a driver or a pedestrian.”
The DEP confirmed to QNS that they are aware of the problem locations reported to 311 and repairs have either already been completed or are scheduled for the coming weeks for those spots.
Of the locations that have not been reported to 311, crews will be dispatched to investigate.
The locations and conditions given by CB 5 are as follows:
- Forest Avenue and the north east corner of Grove Street, there is a collapsed/severely sunken-in catch basin;
- In front of 96-01 Metropolitan Ave., on the corner of Selfridge Street there is a severely sunken-in catch basin with holes on both sides and a curb piece missing;
- 80th Street and the southwest corner of 69th Avenue, there is a sunken catch basin;
- In front of 68-17 54th Ave., just off Jay Avenue, there is a depression next to a manhole;
- North side of Metropolitan Avenue, just west of 69th Street, there is a knocked over fire hydrant;
- On Penelope Avenue at 77th Street, there are sinking conditions next to a sewer manhole;
- 64th Place south of Otto Road, there are sinking conditions that CB 5 has filed several times with 311;
- From 63-44 to 63-28 78th St., there is a sunken sewer trench;
- and there is a large hole next to a catch basin on 64th Road at 82nd Place at the southwest corner.
QNS has visited two of the nine problem sites throughout CB 5 and found the conditions not terribly unsafe, but more of a nuisance for drivers in the area. That is not to say, however, that the conditions at the other locations do not pose an immediate danger to drivers or pedestrians, or that the conditions should not be remedied.
“We had a much longer list, but from what I can now see, DEP repair crews have finally made into the Community Board 5 Queens area,” Giordano said.
