The winters in Western New York can be harsh. Arctic temperatures, blizzards, heavy snow, and treacherous ice abound. As a result, our roads deteriorate from the wild temperature changes. Our street was full of potholes set to damage vehicle suspensions and create tire wear. Fortunately, our city government decided to use some of the coronavirus money they received to pave streets that needed it.
Two days ago a team of workers showed up and stripped out street down to bedrock. Yesterday, another team showed and paved our street. It was stinky. But, today, these photos show you what the finished job looks like: smooth as glass! How are the roads in your community?
Nice job! Send them to Brooklyn! We could definitely use a repaving. The worst is probably Third Avenue. This is a major street running all the way to past 100th Street, near the Verrazano Bridge. It is our major restaurant row. Once you get below (north) of Bay Ridge, however, it becomes more industrial with the Gowanus Expressway (sic) running above it. The streets in that area (mostly in Sunset Park) are Pothole Central and have been for years. Tons of car and truck traffic. They are always working on various sections of the road or the elevated highway, but it needs a complete repaving, which hasn’t happened in years.
Down here in the residential area, the streets are not that bad. Shore Road has been paved.
My street is unique. We have been repaved twice in about 10 years. Neither time needed it. The last time was a year or so ago. They didn’t do a good job, as the asphalt on the other side of the street is at places even with the sidewalk, or just maybe 1/2 inch below it. Meaning in the case of a deluge water would flow into yards and a couple of houses could be flooded. My side of the street is better, and my house is on a tiny hill. We used to have a drainage system but years ago the city did some street work and blocked it off.
On the other hand, the house that I bought in 1975 had not had the street resurfaced for over 40 years. I started calling in 1999 and was told they were going to wait until they put new watermains in. In 2015, I finally got someone out to look at it and he said he didn’t think it was bad (it was alligator skin like) They patched potholes, but badly. Either 1/2 of some got patched or they did the entire pothole, but only 1/2 way up. I was on the phone to the mayor, city council, streets div. director suggesting they all come to the street (which we would block off) and we’d blind fold them and spin them around and have them walk around the street to see who could fall and break something first. I got a letter of apology from the idiot who said he was joking and the street was resurfaced in a month. They put new water mains in in 2019.
They came up with an amazingly sensible idea like ten or more years ago. They would co-ordinate all the city agencies with Con Edison and anyone else who might have to dig up the streets (to install new water pipes, for instance), so everything would be done at once – or at least in the right order – and they wouldn’t do the usual of paving a street, then have someone dig it up six months later to install new pipes or whatever.
Needless to say, probably, this worked in the short term, but soon they went back to the old ways. Whenever someone needs to dig up the street, they just do it. I wish I could count the number of times Con Ed has dug up Narrows Avenue behind our house – they sometimes do this at night when there is less traffic, but work with spotlights on all night! Then they put down huge metal plates and sometimes leave them there for weeks until they come back to finish the project. And we live in a quiet area. Forget Manhattan, where there is construction going on everywhere, it seems.
Jeff, many of the construction projects in Buffalo and surrounding communities were put on hold when the coronavirus hit. A new up-scale mall project in Amherst sits idle now with just a few buildings in various states of construction.
Maggie, many of the streets in Buffalo are almost un-drivable. I’m so glad I don’t have to make that commute to work any more. In general, the streets in the suburbs here are well maintained.
Jeff, when the Stay-at-Home order was issued in March, the North Tonawawanda government decided to launch a number of paving projects while vehicle traffic was almost non-existent. I’d say at least a dozen streets–some of them major arteries–have been paved since then.
They did that here too, including bridge work since the traffic was down 90%.
well, San Diego was too smart to do that. There is a project going on near my library that has been going on for a year at least. People are there, not sure how much work is being done. Same thing near my post office.
There was a paving project done for a fairly busy street, about a mile. within weeks, the surface was wearing away. after a year or so, they got the contractor to redo it. Same thing is happening on a lesser scale.
San diego did buy a couple of buildings that are costing a fortune. One was an indoor high dive place. As far as I know it’s not being used. They took a real estate agent’s appraisal (i think it was the sellers agent, not sure) rather than getting an independent appraisal. It was at least double what it should have been.
Then they bought the old SDG&E building AS IS. There was a warning about asbestos, but ignored. They started to move people in, thinking it would be ok. It wasn’t and IIRC, we’re paying thousands per day for this building which is still unusable.
And we have a bicycle mayor who is having bike lanes put all over the city. That is the only way some streets get paved. They cut down a major east west street from 3 lanes each way to 2. I go on that street fairly often. I have seen 6 bike riders on the street in the last 6 months. 4 were in the bike lane (no helmets, not required) and 2 were on the sidewalk. The car traffic is a lot worse, surprise?? One street with a lot of businesses has had on street parking removed for the bike lanes. Prior to the pandemic, the businesses were having severe loss of income.
San Diego rightfully has the nickname ENRON by the sea
Maggie, about a third of all the restaurants in Western New York went bankrupt in the past few months. Only the Take-Out places are doing well–we had pizza from one last night. Western New York is in Phase 4 of the Re-Opening and inside dining in restaurants is allowed. But I’m not eating inside a restaurant until there’s a vaccine.
We are getting Phase 4 on Monday, but…NO indoor dining (smart) or Malls or museums or other things like that. They are opening outdoor things like zoos and sports places (but no crowds). So it really isn’t the full Phase 4. I agree with you about the restaurants. We’ve considered one or two outdoor places that seem safe – plenty of room, no big crowds – but for now we’ll stick to take out. We got Greek on Thursday, will eat the other half today. Tomorrow will probably be our favorite Italian. There is a little Mexican place that has Taco Tuesdays – buy one, get one free – so we did that this week and it was a great deal. It was about $18 for four barbacoa tacos and a large side of guacamole. We’ll probably go back this week again.
Jeff, Diane went to the Factory Outlet Mall that just reopened. It was mostly deserted. Shoppers see the coronavirus threat isn’t worth a trip to CHICO’S or TALBOT’S. Canadians used to flock to the Factory Outlet Malls–about 80% of the cars in the parking lots had Canadian license plates–but with the International Bridges closed, the Mall’s prime audience isn’t available.
The streets in New Orleans are, of course, notorious for both alignment-destroying potholes, flooding, and ongoing water main leaks. On the Northshore, our biggest problem is street flooding. The streets seems to get resurfaced in a timely manner but our draining system gets overwhelmed very quickly. When we get the deluges that’s are common here on summer afternoons, if they go on for too long, our streets flood very quickly.
Deb, don’t know how they are these days, but some of the streets in the Garden District and beyond, off Magazine, are really about as bad as I’ve seen anywhere.
It’s not original with me, but it’s worth repeating: It’s best not think of New Orleans as a third-rate first-world city but rather as a first-rate third-world city.
Deb, fortunately, we don’t have any flooding problems. But, our sewers and pipes are ancient and need replacement. What ever happened to Trump’s infrastructure initiative?
Just horrible. The state houses are both Republican and if there is something for the public good they want to spend money on, I haven’t found it. Our little community, with huge taxes to support a school that should not be in existence, doesn’t have much left for roads either. Given our weather, it is outrageous. I have only been in a car about five times in the last five months though. Weird.
Patti, many teachers here have decided to retire rather than return to the risks of the coronavirus in the classroom. Also, about half the school bus drivers have quit. Many of them are Senior Citizens and don’t want the exposure to kids spreading covid-19.
Lousy, as is most infrastructure here in Portland. We are on the last, furthest SW street in the city, and completely ignored. The street was partially repaved in 1996 when an additional 8 houses were built, including ours. That’s it. The street is in awful condition, but the city always has something more important than a short dead-end street at it’s furthest border.
Rick, I’ve noticed cul-de-sacs around here are the last to get their roads paved. When the Mayor of North Tonawanda lived across the street from us, this street had constant snowplows in the Winter, and paving crews in the Summer. But, the Mayor divorced his wife and left the area with his sexy secretary.
The trouble with street repaving in New York City, anyway, is that a few weeks later Con Ed or the gas company comes along and starts digging it up.
Ray, some of the older streets in North Tonawanda seem to have National Grid or National Fuel Gas crews digging them up constantly. And the patching of those streets as a result resemble speed bumps. I try to avoid them.
Here in Winnipeg people say there are only two seasons, winter and construction. There is work going on in my neighbourhood, both on majot avenues with businesses and the local streets. I feel bad for the merchants who have been suffering from the virus and now that they can open to limited patrons, access is difficult. Several weeks ago I received a notice from the City that my back lane would be resurfaced. My house is ten houses from one avenue and they started at the other end about a month ago. For some reason they decided to only go as far as two houses from me in the initial phase so those people have been parking on the front street while I can still use my garage. At this point, it sems that all that has been acconmplished is to level the lane. Yesterday when I drove by after a rainstrom overnight, I saw a large pool of water in one spot so obviously the leveling isn’t that good. About ten days ago I saw a man that I knew at the site so asked him when he thought they would start on the second phase behind my garage and he said maybe in three weeks. Based on that I estimated that it will be two months before th entire lane is completed. And you get your work done in two days. Then this week I asked another guy if I would need to be parking my car out front soon and he said that they might not be doing the rest of the lane. I thought he was joking so asked again and he clained to be serious. We shall see.
Kent, construction crews work in mysterious ways.
Just heard noise out back and they are putting down asphalt in the section that they had levelled. Asked today’s guy about my section and still no clear answer.
Kent, but it sounds like the work crew is making progress. The Toronto Blue Jays might be playing their 30 home games in Buffalo. They tried to get the use of the Pittsburgh Pirates stadium but got turned down. The Jays are now trying to play in the Baltimore Orioles stadium, but they might get rejected there, too.
I have a funny feeling that the Jays will be a road team all season. That park In Buffalo isn’t up to major leage standards. Our premier was ready to allow people to travel to Manitoba from Eastern Canada, but backed off yesterday. Our independent league ball team , the Goldeyes, is playing its complete season in the States with all league games either in Fargo or Sioux Falls. Obviously my friends and I won’t be making our annual major league trip this summer. We had planned to go to Kansas City seeing that it’s the 100th anniversary of the Negro Leagues and visit the museum there and catch a couple of games.
Kent, it’s official: the Toronto Blue Jays will be playing their 30 home games in Buffalo. Work crews have been busy upgrading Sahlen Field to get close to Major League standards. No spectators allowed.