NEW ROCHELLE, NY — The griping has been going on for months now. Anyone who has attempted to navigate downtown New Rochelle lately knows that getting to Point A from Point B can require stops at Point C, D, E. Trips that once took 10 minutes can take 30 minutes. For those feeling like mice in a maze, the City has just announced there is no cheese.
The main culprit has been infrastructure improvements by utility companies and City contractors upgrading New Rochelle’s water, gas, electric and sanitary sewer lines.
The work was necessitated by poor planning, attributed to the Development Department, which downplayed the impact of downtown apartment projects. The result was a roughly $40 million bond to upgrade the capacity of the sanitary sewer system.
Once the City began “daylighting” — opening up the asphalt cover on streets throughout the City — everyone else jumped in.
In ripping up the streets to get access to sanitary sewer pipes, the City decided to multi-task and replace stormwater drains.
Suez, the water utility, seized the opportunity to upgrade their distribution system and enlarging their supply line. The trunk lines being replaced, especially around Webster and Main.
Con Edison is converting gas lines in neighborhoods throughout New Rochelle from low to high-pressure service.
While some projects are short-term, others will be longer.
If there is an impact on service delivery, ConEd and Suez are supposed to contact customers directly. For larger projects, the utilities may ask the City for assistance with additional outreach, primarily the reverse-911 system. Contacting those whose service is directly effected does nothing to help neighbors effective by noise or motorists who may unexpectedly find a road closed.
For those frustrated by the inconveniences, the mother of all disruptions is still to come — the closure of the North Avenue Bridge connecting downtown New Rochelle to everything north of downtown. As part of a statewide upgrade of roadways and bridges, the New York State Thruway Authority has plans to replace the North Avenue bridge over I-95.
The first phase is the North Avenue Bridge Utility Relocation Project. The necessary utility relocation will require traffic to be reduced to one lane in either direction between Huguenot Street and Lockwood Avenue beginning this summer. Burling Lane will be closed to through traffic at North Avenue, and access to I-95 from North Avenue southbound will be detoured through Memorial Highway. No details have been provided as to when this work will begin — or end.
The Department of Public Works is finalizing a paving list for 2021. Messaging will be sent to affected neighborhoods. The 2020 contractor has begun the preparation (i.e., pedestrian ramp installations, casting adjustment) on the streets that were not completed last year. The City website will list the latest paving plans.
A small but disruptive project for East End residents will be a new curb cut at the Intersection of Palmer Avenue and Stephenson Boulevard.
The New York State Department of Transportation has gotten into the act with its decision to re-number exits on the Hutchinson Rivet Parkway from the Bronx to the Connecticut border. As new signs replace old signs, exit numbers are being changed from sequential to mile-based exits.
The exit numbers were recently converted to a mileage-based system:
Way too much building and traffic stops due to it