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September 3, 2010
Barclays Center Construction Forces Pedestrians Onto The Street
NY1
by John Mancini
NY1 reports on the recent constriction of Flatbush Avenue.
Things are tight all over near the basketball arena going up in Prospect Heights, Brooklyn -- so tight that creating a safe path for pedestrians means putting them in an unlikely spot.
"The only way we could achieve that was to put the pedestrians in the roadway, which meant that we had to take a lane of traffic from Flatbush Avenue," says Forest City Ratner traffic consultant Sam Schwartz.
In the best of times, there is congestion between Atlantic Avenue and Dean Street, where six lanes are now five. To keep traffic moving, three lanes flow toward Manhattan in the mornings and pedestrians walk on blacktop between barriers.
...Ratner's goal is to get all lanes open as soon as possible, perhaps as a few months before the arena opens.
Bruised by the long fight, residents are skeptical.
"We've seen more closures of sidewalks, more closures of streets at this point in the project than we were told were going to happen," says Prospect Heights resident Peter Krashes.
article [with video]
Posted by eric at September 3, 2010 12:30 PM