Hasn’t anyone here heard of planning?
Already besieged by the seemingly interminable Second Avenue subway construction, Upper East Siders now must cope with a massive Con Ed project stretching 20 blocks down First Avenue.
“It’s [a] double whammy,” sighed Barbara D’Antonio, spokeswoman for the Second Avenue Business Association, which suffered a defeat in July when Gov. Paterson vetoed a bill that would provide grants to businesses affected by the construction.
Already, eight businesses stretching from 91st to 96th streets have folded, as construction crews tear up Second Avenue to make way for a subway line tentatively slated to open in 2015.
And now more businesses and residents along First Avenue will feel their pain, as Con Ed crews are digging up First Avenue for a multiyear project to install transmission cables. Workers are digging south from 96th Street to 75th Street, adding further chaos to the neighborhood.
“Sometimes I work nights, so I sleep during the day, but the noise gets so bad, I can only sleep for four hours,” said Ingrid Rosario, a 43-year-old nurse. “It’s very disturbing.”
Samar spa owner Samar Elsayegh arrived at her parlor on First Avenue and 92nd Street on Wednesday to find a 7-foot-high stack of pipes at her doorstep.
“Since I can’t get people into this place, it has been hell,” she said. “I almost had a heart attack [Wednesday] morning. People won’t come into the place. My rent is $7,000. Do you know how many haircuts I have to do?”
The transmission-line project, which will extend until 2010, involves digging 6-inch, curbside trenches one block at a time to install the cables along First Avenue that will hook up with a refurbished, 180-megawatt substation on East 75th Street.
A similar transmission-line project alone Third Avenue is also in the works, although no timetable has been made public.
“They . . . work at a block for one or two weeks and move on with each segment, so no more than one block at a time should be affected,” said Con Ed spokesman Michael Clendenin.
The rep emphasized that the scope of the work was dramatically smaller than the subway construction a block over.
But Councilman Dan Garodnick (D-Manhattan), who represents the area, said, “It has the potential to create a serious quality-of-life mess on the Upper East Side.
“We need to make sure Con Ed is coordinating with the MTA and, particularly, with the Department of Transportation, to make sure the construction of both of these projects stays sufficiently far from another.”