By Gus Saltonstall
A “noisy” Upper West Side Con Edison project is expected to come to an end next month, a spokesperson for the electric and gas company told West Side Rag this week.
Since the beginning of this past summer, Con Edison has been working on replacing a gas main along Columbus Avenue between West 96th and 105th streets, with the majority of work based at West 105th Street and Columbus Avenue.
To complete that work, Con Edison installed large metal plates on the streets in the construction areas, in order to cover holes in the road where they are are repairing the gas line.
“The noise is unbearable,” Adar Earon, an Upper West Sider who lives near West 105th Street and Columbus Avenue, told the Rag. “When a bus drives over them [the metal plates], it wakes up my kids. When a truck passes, it’s loud enough to trigger car alarms.”
Earon, who first reached out to the Rag in October about the noise issue connected to the Con Edison plates at West 105th and 96th streets, added — “The situation on 105th Street is particularly troubling. They [the metal plates] shift and create substantial noise whenever vehicles, including trucks and buses, pass over them. This persistent noise has become a serious nuisance for residents.”
A spokesperson from Con Edison told West Side Rag that replacing the Columbus Avenue gas main will help by “improving safety and reliability [and] will reduce emissions.”
“Crews are working to complete this project by the end of February. Please note that timelines in projects like these are dependent on a wide array of factors from the complexities of underground work to the weather,” the spokesperson wrote in an email. “We understand that the noise created when cars and trucks drive over the steel plates, that protect the street and allow traffic to flow, can be disruptive.”
“That’s why crews secure them after every work day,” she added. “We will continue to work as quickly and safely as possible to complete this project.”
Resident issues over the noise created by Con Edison metal plates plates is not a new one, as a 2019 New York Times article touches on the specific issue.
We will update this article when the plates are removed.
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Hopefully they will repave the street when they are finished.
CAC did the entire block on 95th from Columbus to Amsterdam and did not pave it when they were done. They just left it torn up and full of sunken trenches with random piles of asphalt laying in the street.
The firm that did the same work for Con Ed down by 95th Street was CAC Construction. They’re in Long Island City, the owner is Mike Capasso and their number is (718) 729-3600. It was the same problem, noisy plates in the street for weeks at a time. I asked one CAC supervisor to put some cones up blocking a few plates and that helped but you can’t do that for the ones in the middle of the street.
There is supposed to be a noise mitigation plan filed. In addition the plates have to be fitted properly. Also make sure that they have the proper non skid surface. If they don’t that is a safety issue and could expedite DOT to inspect the area if they’re not too busy putting in more bike lanes.
There has been a ConEd project on West End and around 100th Street going on for the past few weeks, with a big round truck doing something that’s incredibly noisy for hours on end. I can hear it on Riverside. No idea what it is.
It’s been for way longer than that, maybe months, they just moved a block or so
Is this the noise that I constantly hear at like 5 in the morning?
This has been an ongoing project since 2012 here on the Upper West Side replacing all the gas piping underground and in some cases replacing electrical wiring
work as well by ConEdison.
They announced back then this would be a 20 year project.
I’m sure we’re looking at another 20+ years before it’s completed over.
I remember this quite well when it started on our street.
We suffered two years (that was only supposed to be three months.) hearing these iron plates banging away in the middle of the day and at night, nonstop cars and trucks rolling over these iron plates in the middle of the street. It was horrific.
It was like torture, I ended up living in my house for about a year + in Amagansett just to get away from the noise.
New York is a very old and sick city that needs to be fixed continuously…. “forever”.!!!!
Just as we get old the city does too…
There’s always going to be something else to repair in a city like this.
The outcome… that street will be repaved when they’re finished.
So… Get used to it future generations!
We lived with this and a HUGE dusty mess afterwards on West End Ave (Lincoln Towers) a few years ago for months and months. Loud, esp for those of us on the lower floors of the building, disruptive, messy, etc.
And even though its over, they keep opening the street up again and again!
Would be nice to have a resource – ie what projects are being worked on, etc. Might take some of the aggravation out of it when it’s happening on your street!
Or maybe NYC could be like Paris or Tokyo, with all its wires, pipes and cables bundled in underground tunnels where maintenance can be done without bothering anyone at the surface… Just maybe, if this city had been built normally…
Isn’t gas being phased out to be replaced by electric?
I can’t wait until the only option is Pzza from an electric oven!
Noise on West End and 103!
Well, if ya don’t like the noise, move to Pennsylvania!! Oh wait, they’ve been working on I-78 since the 1970s…
I had the same noise problem from plates on Amsterdam Avenue near W. 119th Street. There were rectangular holes in Amsterdam AvenueI to allow workers access to underground utilities. When work is not being done the plates are covered with thick metal plates that fit over the holes and are almost flat with the street. The problem is that when heavy vehicles ride over the plates, the plates are pushed down a little. When the weight of the vehicle passes over, the plate jumps up a little and then settles back in the hole. The noise comes from the plate settling back down in the hole. The solution is to spread hot asphalt around the hole after the plate is put back in place This keeps the plate from jumping up when the vehicle passes over.
ConEd should be required to pave the streets once the work is done.
It would be good if ConEd would at least map out what they have accomplished on this 20 year project. I know they are nearly finished with West End Avenue.
Projects like this are bound to be a pain in the ….., but are necessary civic improvements.. Near me, on 95th Street, which underwent this for a year, the CAC workers were among the most efficient I’ve ever observed in such a situation, respectful of the neighbors, cleaned up meticulously at the end of each day, and coordinated well.