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Project Status
Update
March 8th 2003
BHRA's contract and
street construction permits (Notice to Proceed) expired
March 8th 2003, we ceased street construction on that
date due to our absence of permits. DOT has not
yet informed us if they plan on: renewing our contract,
turning the project over to another organization, for
profit construction consortium or if they plan to
complete the project themselves. Or abandon the
project and rip out / scrap the trolley tracks, trolley
poles, catanary and paving stones already installed.
All 16 of BHRA's trolley
cars, all equipment and most construction materials used
on this project are sole property of BHRA (these items
have been donated or purchased by BHRA with private
funds).
NYC DOT Scraps Brooklyn
Trolley Project
May 27th
NYC DOT Trucks and work
crews arrived in Red Hook early this morning, prior to
the arrival of BHRA staff. This event was
the first time NYC DOT actively participated in the
Brooklyn Trolley Project; Unfortunately, DOT's trucks
and work crews were there not to support our efforts to
return trolleys to the streets of Brooklyn.
Instead they arrived to take BHRA's "surplus"
construction materials; items paid for with
approximately $250,000 in state and federal money
(ISTEA) and $50,000 in City money BHRA received during
the 10 year period in which NYC DOT was the projects
sponsoring agency. When it came to scrapping the
project the DOT showed tremendous enthusiasm and
dedicated a great deal of their equipment (stopping work
on 2 street construction jobs to free up equipment and laborers).
NYC DOT send
approximately a dozen large dump trucks, a large pay
loader, a welding rig, other equipment and a
large contingent of laborers to dismantle and cart away
"surplus" materials they believed they were entitled to.
City DOT provided BHRA with no advanced notice, no
tabulations of materials already implemented, no
calculations of material they believed to be "surplus"
and no receipt (and we requested one) for what they
carted away.
Although we completed a
quarter mile of track and catenary and paving and were
nearing completion on 2 additional blocks (that we were
to cease on March 8th) and the city's total contribution
to the project was a mere 50,000 dollars; City DOT
removed any and all items they felt they were entitled
to. BHRA estimates that the dollar value of the
materials removed by DOT and their "subcontractors"
today exceeds $500,000.00 (ten times the cumulative,
10-year city contribution to the project).
Inspection subsequent to
the visit by DOT's "scrappers" revealed the removal of
approximately:
- 6,000 railroad ties
(including ties donated by Conrail and
Norfolk-Southern)
- 12 large dump trucks
full of cobblestones (including paving stones donated
by Amtrak)
- Two dozen historic,
trolley control signals from the Newark City Subway
System (c. 1930s) and century old US&S T2 semaphore
signals. (including signals donated by Newark and NJ
Transit)
- 400 Sections of Rail
(including rail donated by Conrail, the MTA & CSX
So What are City DOT's
plans for these materials? We can only speculate:
One of the DOT laborers
stated that the dump trucks with the ties were to be topped off with
asphalt and construction debris then taken to Flatlands (and presumably
dumped there). Although the cobblestones & metal items are
probably headed for the scrap heap or for resale. Simply storing
the materials would not necessitate including a welding crew with and
oxy acetylene set up and a Sopranoesque subcontractor/ consultant/
metal scrapper present attired in a sweat suite with gold chains and
dress shoes. Since there was no truck at the site long enough to
accommodate an uncut piece of rail, we assume the rail is likely headed
for a scrap yard (once you cut it apart it doesn't really fit back
together).
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