Squadron, Electeds: “Over 90 Active Construction Projects in 1.5 Square Mile Radius”

NEW YORK – Today, State Senator Daniel Squadron, Congressmember Jerry Nadler, Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer, and Councilmember Margaret Chin urged the City Administration to create a centralized coordinator of major construction projects in lower Manhattan, in a letter to First Deputy Mayor Shorris (attached). The electeds’ call comes in response to the elimination of the Department of Transportation (DOT) Lower Manhattan Borough Commissioner’s Office, which had been serving some of these functions.

“We are concerned that with the impending closure of the Department of Transportation’s Lower Manhattan Borough Commissioner’s Office, there will be no entity coordinating the large number of current and pending projects in the area. We request that your office assign the role of coordinating construction efforts in Lower Manhattan and engage the community in construction related issues,” wrote Squadron and the electeds to Deputy Mayor Shorris. “In absence of a unifying agency, individual elected offices have taken it upon themselves to bring agencies together to determine how to coordinate construction and minimize its impact on the community on a project by project basis.”

The Lower Manhattan Construction Command Center (LMCCC) served this construction coordination role from 2004-2013. Since LMCCC’s disbanding, DOT assumed some of this role through the Lower Manhattan Borough Commissioner’s Office. Late last year, DOT announced that it would be disbanding the Lower Manhattan Borough Commissioner’s Office this year.

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