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October 6, 2011
Noises on! Barclays Center construction now 24-7-365
The Brooklyn Paper
by Daniel Bush
Workers will now toil on the Barclays Center around the clock, seven days a week to ensure that the $1-billion arena will be ready for Jay-Z’s grand opening concerts next summer.
Neighbors of the Prospect Heights arena were quick to notice the stepped-up construction schedule, thanks to ear-splitting noise between 10 pm and 6 am on Atlantic, Flatbush and Fourth avenues, and Pacific Street, where roadwork is underway in hopes of reducing traffic to the 19,000-seat arena.
Construction is also going full-blast to repair the shuttered Carlton Avenue bridge, install new sewer lines and prepare the site’s rail yard for a massive upgrade.
As if that weren’t enough, truck deliveries to the site were pushed back to 6 am, and a staging area inside of the Atlantic Yards footprint is active 24 hours per day, according to residents.
...“It’s noisy and loud,” said Milagros Barreto, who lives on Dean Street. “I can hear the work clearly from my house.”
John Carruthers, who lives on Pacific Street, said the noise is keeping him and his 14-year-old daughter up at night.
“She ends up going to sleep late and wakes up tired,” he said. “It’s pissing me off.”
Related coverage...
Atlantic Yards Report, Brooklyn Paper covers after-hours construction but suggests that all of it is required to be done at night. Not so.
Norman Oder tried to post a comment to the Brooklyn Paper's story, but got denied. Here's part of it.
To say "City rules require that the work be done at night" suggests that Forest City Ratner has not asked for any special permissions. Not so.
There are no requirements, for example, that work be done at night at the arena site, or that deliveries be made earlier. They've speeded up. Asked about 24/7 work, Bruce Ratner said, "We don't want to take any chances."
Posted by eric at October 6, 2011 10:08 AM