A large hole in the Ferry Point community’s main thoroughfare, Brush Avenue, was finally filled by the DOT, ending a racket on a small residential corner caused by large trucks hitting the gorge.
What residents describe as a large “cave in” depression on Brush Avenue near the intersection of Rohr Place was taking its toll on every vehicle traveling down the road, before being filled on Monday, August 25.
According to residents, besides the danger of trucks swerving to avoid the depression, and damage to vehicles, they also experienced “mind-numbing” noise that some have also described as “nerve shattering.”
When the Department of Transportation was called to investigate, they promised and delivered swift action.
“Our crew went out there and put orange cones around the pothole on Friday, August 22,” said Craig Chin, of the DOT. “We filled the hole on Monday, August 25. It measured 20 feet by 8 feet.”
One concerned community activist thought that the growing pot-hole had the potential to become an environmental hazard.
“The depression had been developing for three months, and was now several inches deep,” noted Dotti Poggi of the Ferry Point Advocates, just one of the groups working to improve the quality of life in the community. “It appears to me that water was flowing underneath. It looked like two large ovals joining each other at a sinkhole.”
DOT poured down a large amount of asphalt to repair the problem on the northbound side of Brush Avenue.
Poggi said she brought the matter to light because she feared for drivers on the road.
“There is a pretty sharp turn on Brush Avenue near Wenner Place,” Poggi explained. “So, when large tractor-trailer trucks swerved to avoid the depression at the corner of Rohr Place, they were risking a dangerous accident as they got back into the right lane. There are no lines painted in the street indicating the lanes of traffic.”
The “cave in” is just one of many street repair and enhancement issues that different community groups in Ferry Point are fighting for, including improved and increased number of catch basins, repaving of the “park loop” road under the Whitestone Bridge, and the installation of curbs in the 900 block of Brush Avenue.
“I have put in a request for a drainage study of Brush Avenue under a budget consultation with the Department of Environmental Protection,” added Kenneth Kearns, district manager for Community Board 10. “If DEP puts in the catch basins, DOT will put in curbing for Brush Avenue. It is a capital project request on Brush Avenue from Schley Avenue to Bruckner Expressway, and the intersecting streets.”
