SUNK: A sinking foundation has stalled construction of Owl Hollow Field, here in an artist’s rendering, on Staten Island’s former Fresh Kills Landfill. (
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Mayor Bloomberg’s ambitious plan to turn a former Staten Island landfill into a massive public park is sinking — literally.
The city has hit a major snag in the early stages of a three-decade effort to transform the 2,200-acre former Fresh Kills Landfill along the West Shore Expressway into green space nearly triple the size of Central Park.
The project’s long-delayed first segment — bringing four soccer fields and other amenities to 28 acres at the edge of the former garbage dump — is on hold again because its foundation is sinking.
Parks Department workers and the contractor hired to build Owl Hollow Fields for the Fresh Kills Park project believe tons of sand laid out as foundation fill has dropped between eight inches and a foot, sources close to the project told The Post.
“If problems like this are happening at this stage, just imagine when they try building thousands of acres in the heart of the landfill,” said Geoffrey Croft, of watchdog group New York City Park Advocates.
Workers for Brooklyn-based D. Gangi Contracting began laying the fill in October 2009. By August of last year, they noticed materials appeared to be sinking.
The contractor and city are now bickering over who’s responsible for paying the potentially millions of dollars in extra costs to ensure the ground is sturdy enough, sources said.
Originally estimated to cost $6.8 million in 2006, the project price tag is already up to $14 million. About $4.5 million was spent cleaning the site after the state Department of Environmental Conservation discovered it was contaminated with toxic PCBs.
The city had previously claimed the Owl Hollow site was never used as a dump, only as a staging area for equipment. But workers uncovered refuse during construction, sources said.
The Owl Hollow project was announced in 2006 as part of the mayor’s larger Fresh Kills project. The environmental cleanup delayed construction three years.
D. Gangi was hired to build the fields in October 2008 for $6.8 million and was supposed to have completed the job by late 2009. The city says it now expects the fields to be done by December.
But Donald Gangi, head of D. Gangi, said that the fields are “just 15, 20 percent complete” due to unanticipated holdups and that it’ll take at least two more years to finish.
A Parks Department spokeswoman said the city “is working with the contractor to determine if sinking is occurring, and we will take the appropriate steps once the condition of the site is determined.”
The Fresh Kills Landfill collected city waste from 1947 to 2001. By 1997, two of the four mounds were closed and covered with an impermeable cap. The entire landfill received its last barge of garbage in March 2001.
Portions were used as a sifting station to find human remains from World Trade Center rubble after the 9/11 attack.