8 APRIL 13 - APRIL 19, 2018 BROOKLYN MEDIA GROUP
Sinking areas plague Dyker shopping strip
BY VICTORIA MERLINO
EDITORIAL@BROOKLYNREPORTER.COM
Thirteenth Avenue between Bay
Ridge Parkway and 76th Street
in Dyker Heights has started
to sink again, making the busy road
more difficult for drivers to navigate.
Local resident Lenny Fodera notified
this paper of the issue, saying that
the city keeps putting blacktop over
the area to try to patch the problem,
but that it keeps sinking.
“I know that that area always sinks,”
Fran Vella-Marrone, president of the
Dyker Heights Civic Association, said.
“It’s a long-term issue.”
Vella-Marrone described sinkholes
as a perennial problem that has
plagued the area for years. The sinking
areas are paved over with asphalt,
only to sink again later.
“The problem is the city has not
put in the funding necessary,” Vella
Marrone said about the sinking
streets. Vella-Marrone said that to
finally stop sinkhole issues, the city
would have to repair the streets
through trench restoration, a process
through which the affected
area is dug up and then stabilized
to prevent further sinking.
“The roadway has been in really bad
shape for quite some time,” Josephine
Beckmann, Community Board 10’s
district manager, agreed. The board is
also advocating for trench restoration,
though Beckmann said the board is
still unsure if the area is a good candidate
for it.
The board has reached out to the
New York City Department of Transportation
(DOT) and Department
of Environmental Protection (DEP)
about the issue, and there have been
multiple 311 calls about the location,
according to Beckmann, who said she
spoke with DOT Brooklyn Borough
Commissioner Keith Bray about the
problem recently. Beckmann reported
that Bray said he was addressing the
issue, and that the DEP and National
Grid had been notified about the
problem.
Sinkholes have been a major issue
in various locations around southwest
Brooklyn over the past several years.
Among the most dramatic were one
at Fifth Avenue and 64th Street that
opened up in 2015 and took 13 months
to repair, a 30-foot-wide by 10-footdeep
one that swallowed a portion of
79th Street (and a car) between Fourth
and Fifth Avenues back in 2012, and a
nearly-70-foot-deep one that opened
up on 92nd Street earlier that same
summer.
When contacted for comment, a DOT
representative punted the issue to
DEP, contending it would be the more
appropriate agency to give comment
on the issue, as the DEP deals with
sinkholes. DEP Spokesperson Edward
Timbers told this paper, "DEP crews
will be inspecting the water and sewer
infrastructure on the block."
BROOKLYN MEDIA GROUP/Photo by Helen Klein
Thirteenth Avenue between Bay Ridge Parkway and 76th
Street.
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