Construction Woes Hit Clinton/Hell’s Kitchen

Residents in the Clinton/Hell’s Kitchen area of Manhattan will soon be contending with the sights and sounds of a major construction project to fix the city’s aging water pipes in their area.

Clinton resident James Cocroft stands outside the 21st Century Gourmet Deli at the corner of 48th Street and 10th Avenue on May 30. The cross streets are at the start of a new five-year construction project, which has some residents concerned. Benjamin Chasteen/The Epoch Times

NEW YORK—Residents in the Clinton/Hell’s Kitchen area of Manhattan will soon be contending with the sights and sounds of a major construction project to fix the city’s aging water pipes, and they are bracing for a long five-year disruption to their lives.

Preliminary work—which involves extending a water shaft from about 325 feet where it currently meets the old underground water tunnel, to 450 feet, where it will be hooked up to a new tunnel—began on 48th Street east of 10th Avenue on Tuesday with workers drilling test pits. Heavy construction is expected to begin by mid-June or early-July on 48th Street between 10th Avenue and Broadway.

The 48th Street project is one of 11 planned projects in Manhattan that will connect water pipes to the main tunnel.

The project is expected to be complete by spring of 2017, or in 2,005 consecutive calendar days according to a New York City Design and Construction (DCC) report. Residents are worried about how long the disruptions to their lives will take.