Residents living near the Greenpoint waterfront were treated to a pageant of dozens of construction trucks idling in the West Street protected bike lane while waiting for entrance to a nearby construction site early Friday morning.
Françoise Olivas, a Greenpoint resident of over 16 years who lives near West Street, hears construction noise consistently beginning around 4 a.m., which she says is the legal start time for the West Street-adjacent developments to make noise due to a special permit.
“We woke up at 3:50 a.m. this morning and on Tuesday it was the same thing,” she said. Olivas walked outside to the East River Studios building next to Transmitter Park at 4 a.m. this morning where she suspected the idling trucks were originating.
Olivas spoke first with a production manager at East River Studios regarding the trucks and noise, but realized the parade of large trucks were headed toward a construction site nearby. “The trucks stretched on West Street from Ash to Noble and they were carting off soli because they were all empty,” she said.
After checking in with a manager at the 1 Huron construction site who claimed no responsibility, Olivas finally found the destination: Greenpoint Landing.
After asking why the bike lane on West Street was being used for truck parking on a mass scale shes says a Greenpoint Landing construction manager responded, “where are the trucks supposed to line up?” “I told him not in the bike lane,” Olivas said.
The latest Greenpoint Landing construction phase will bring two towers forming an inverse ziggurat to the waterfront; construction broke ground last November according to NY YIMBY:
Once complete, the development will support 745 rentals designed by architects of record Beyer Blinder Belle. The residential component will include 20 percent “income-targeted” apartments marketed in accordance with the Affordable Housing New York program.
The towers’ façades will be comprised of pale-hued precast concrete panels with eight-foot-square window openings. Similar to the buildings’ forms, the precast panels are carved with angled patterns designed to playfully react to the movement of the sun throughout the day.
This phase will also add more than 40,000 square feet of new public green space to the existing waterfront esplanade, establishing a total of 2.5 acres of continuous public park land along the shoreline. James Corner Field Operations served as the waterfront landscape architect and has detailed multiple lawn areas, picnic space, outdoor seating, and possible maritime installations.
To file a complaint for anything construction-related call 311 (write down complaint #) and let Greenpointers know what you see.
If they’re idling, shouldn’t the police issue them tickets (assuming that it’s more than 3 mins)?