by Brian McLaughlin
Now in its seventh year, the road repair program oversees the reconstruction of several Lynbrook roads each year. The roads are selected according to their level of deterioration.
"We try and figure out which streets have the most problems," said Phil Heely, DPW director. "They get first priority."
The streets chosen by the program this year include Acorn Road, Charing Cross, Fenimore Street, Lakewood Avenue, Langdon Place, Leeman Street, Lenox Avenue, William Avenue and Wilbur Street.
Heely said the program focuses on about one mile of total road surface each year and sets aside 180 workdays to complete all the jobs. The majority of the construction is scheduled for the summer months. The project, which is included in the village budget, usually costs between $900,000 and $1.4 million. This year's project is estimated at $1.3 million.
There are never any shortages of candidates for repair since many Lynbrook roads have not been modified since the time they were originally laid.
"Many of these streets have not had their road surfaces worked on for 40 or 50 years," said Heely.
Being left alone for so long has allowed many of the streets to become so problematic that they often need to be completely rebuilt from scratch. This means that the roads are literally stripped down to their foundations and new roads are laid in their places.
Sometimes, the projects become even more extensive. Heely said on some of the more significantly deteriorated roads, public works employees will repair the sidewalks, realign gutters and curbs and lay new driveway aprons. On other streets the village works in conjunction with the Long Island Water Company to improve the conditions of the streets' drainage equipment. Fenimore Street recently had new storm drains and large connection pipes installed.
Unfortunately, repair jobs of this scale require the roads to be closed to traffic, since for a time they are reduced to little more than dirt and rubble. They only motorists permitted on the roads during the construction are emergency vehicles and residents who live on the specific streets.
The road closings can cause obvious inconveniences for businesses, but residential areas suffer too, primarily when it comes to parking. Residents living on the streets scheduled for repair have to keep their cars off their road during the day to make room for repair crews and for a portion of the construction process the roads are rendered impassable.
Residents of Fenimore Street learned this recently when their road underwent a complete reconstruction. The block contains 57 households, which meant many cars lined Hendrickson Avenue and Whitehall Street during the most intensive portions of the repair.
Some residents grew frustrated with having their road torn up, but most felt that the temporary inconvenience will have benefits for years to come.
"At times it's been annoying to move our cars off the street early each morning, but the road definitely needed the work and I'm glad to see that the village is making an effort to keep the roads in good condition," said Fenimore Street resident Peter Prandi.
Some residents speculated that the project was taking longer than necessary, but according to Heely, the construction on Fenimore, as well as the work currently being done on Leeman, Langdon and Lakewood, is right on schedule.
"These are just huge projects and they take several weeks to complete," said Heely, who said that, on the average, an individual street can be completed in less than a month.
Some Fenimore Street residents claimed that the laborers working on their road walked off the job following a payment dispute on Monday, July 1. Heely confirmed that "there was some sort of dispute between the laborers and the contracting company," but insisted that, "the village's contract was in no way affected and it did not cause a delay in the construction."
Rough grade surfacing was laid on Fenimore earlier this week, allowing the street to be partially reopened. Heely is hopeful the road will be completely finished in about two weeks. The next street that the DPW plans to begin work on is Acorn, followed by Lenox and then Charing Cross.
None of the dates are completely definite, but Heely is sure that Wilbur and William will be the last projects and will not begin until all other projects are completed, sometime at the end of September.
"Wilbur and William will be the toughest jobs," according to Heely. "They're one way streets, in a busy commercial area."
