He’s trippin’!
The city abandoned a scheme Brooklyn’s head transit honcho hatched to secure capital funding for repairs to a treacherous Windsor Terrace sidewalk because the $10-million plan was simply too expensive.
“We are currently exploring other feasible options due to the cost,” said a Department of Transportation spokeswoman.
The agency’s Brooklyn Borough Commissioner Keith Bray suggested the pie-in-the-sky proposal after concerned residents demanded the brick sidewalk along Prospect Park West between Bartel-Pritchard Square and 18th Street be replaced with concrete, claiming the constantly dislodging masonry is both a hazard to pedestrians — especially seniors, who trip over it — and a liability for property owners, who must pay to maintain the bricks outside their businesses or homes.
Bray’s plan called for repaving the pathway as part of a larger project to enhance traffic safety on the street by adding sidewalk extensions known as bump-outs at its intersections — without which, the job wouldn’t be eligible for capital funding from
the city, he said.
The transit bigwig told locals in November that officials successfully used the same strategy in other neighborhoods, but a subsequent study determined that installing a concrete sidewalk along with the bump-outs would cost upwards of $10 million.
And the city’s Office of Management and Budget deemed the price tag cost-prohibitive, according to the transportation-department spokeswoman, who said the agency is now looking at the issue with officials from the Department of Environmental Protection.
The setback will be a blow to those locals concerned about the safety of their neighbors who travel the sidewalk, but may come as a relief to others reluctant to give up precious street parking in order to add the bump-outs, which would gobble up spots.
And the local assemblyman who organized the meeting where Bray pitched his too-pricey proposal plans to hold another session to brief residents on other potential solutions this spring, according to a staffer.
“We’re hoping to get some kind of evaluation on other things that might make it capitally eligible by springtime,” said Dan Campanelli, chief of staff to Assemblyman Robert Carroll (D–Windsor Terrace).
