Four Out of Five Local Construction Projects Slip Behind Schedule
The City’s Department of Design and Construction offered updates on five major infrastructure projects in Lower Manhattan at the November 19 meeting of the Quality of Life Committee of Community Board 1.
The reconstruction of Nassau Street between Pine Street and Maiden Lane (near the Federal Reserve Bank of New York) entails the relocation of multiple underground chambers and conduits used by Con Edison and Empire City Subway, a private firm that maintains underground telecommunications lines. The visible portion of this project will include new granite curbs and sidewalks above a new roadbed consisting of three inches of asphalt resting on nine inches of concrete. This work is expected to be finished by next August, three months later than the original end date.
The rebuilding of Greenwich Street between Barclay and Murray Streets has been undertaken mainly to improve the water main network, but will also include new streetlights, traffic signals, and street furniture, along with catch basins and sewer manholes. This project remains on schedule and is still slated for completion by November 2026.
The rehabilitation of Vesey Street between Church Street and Broadway, next to St. Paul’s Chapel, focuses on the presence of an obscure form of conduit known as “oil-o-static pipes” – a system of electrical transmission lines in which three high-voltage cables are encased in a steel pipe filled with pressurized oil, which cools, insulates, and separates the power cables. The cosmetic enhancements planned for Vesey include a six-inch granite curb and pigmented sidewalk. This initiative was originally scheduled to be done by January 2026, but is now expected to continue through next June.
The overhaul of a multi-block stretch of Trinity Place between Morris and Cedar Streets was catalyzed by the need for new sewer, water, and steam equipment. While the street is excavated, however, shallow Con Edison electric lines will be buried more deeply. This project includes the single block of Rector Street between Trinity Place and Broadway (alongside the Trinity Church graveyard), which is completely closed to vehicles and has only the narrow sidewalk on the south side open to accommodate huge numbers of pedestrians. The Trinity Place reconstruction began in 2023 and was originally anticipated to be complete in September 2027, but is now expected to take until January 2029.
And the restoration of an interceptor sewer on South Street between Fulton and Dover Streets, which began in November 2023, aims to stop East River water from seeping into the six-foot by eight-foot, 1,000-foot-long passage, located roughly 30 feet below ground level. Originally expected to be finished next August, this project is now expected to wrap up by the end of next year.