The safety risk is getting repaired

Walking on either side of Branch Boulevard that stretches from Peninsula Boulevard between Cedarhurst and Woodmere to Hungry Harbor Road in North Woodmere is akin to moving along an obstacle course.

Portions of the sidewalks on both sides of the road are uprooted forcing walkers and joggers into the roadway where vehicles buzz by at 40 mph or possibly more.

But starting this week, the long-delayed Branch Boulevard sidewalk repair project is scheduled to get underway. The Nassau County capital improvement project is expected to cost $5000,000, according to County Legislator Howard Kopel (R-Lawrence).

“This is a major safety issue not to mention a quality of life issue,” said Kopel, who noted that pedestrians who walk on Branch Boulevard, especially Orthodox Jews on Saturday are vulnerable to the traffic that whizzes by.

The project is expected to be done in two phases, which will include the repair phase for the next six to eight weeks, then a tree-planting replacement phase that will either be done from Oct. 15 to Dec. 15 or April 15 to June 15, depending on when the initial phase is completed. Sidewalk repair will end at South Gate Drive off of Hungry Harbor Road in North Woodmere.

Trees were taken down on Tuesday. They are expected to be replaced with 12 to 15-feet high trees from a variety of species.

A Hemlock Drive resident in Cedarhurst who asked to be identified as Mr. Ackerman, an observant Jew, who walks Branch Boulevard with his wife and young child, said that the sidewalks have been in this condition for many years and it is just a disaster waiting to happen as a high a high volume of vehicles travel on Branch as it is, “the gateway to Queens, Valley Stream and to home, and it is very dangerous.”

“It is horrible, you try to walk on the sidewalks with a stroller and it is impassable,” he said as he stood outside his home looking toward Branch Boulevard. “On Saturdays everybody that goes to synagogue cuts down through Branch Boulevard.”

The problem is so acute it was spotlighted in a 2009 Herald article “A safety risk?” where a number of people noted the hazard of having a high number of people walking in the street due to the sidewalks poor condition as vehicles speed by.