Transit Authority
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Q: I was awakened at 1 a.m. the other night by the sound of a jackhammer. It continued until 6 a.m. Apparently a road was being rebuilt outside my window. Why would the city allow such loud construction in the middle of the night?
A: Manhattan is the only borough where nearly all roadwork – the milling and repaving of roads – is done at night. The reason is simple: Shutting down streets in the middle of the day would clog traffic on the densely populated island. In the other boroughs, however, such night construction is performed only in commercial districts, with residential areas spared the nuisance of nighttime jackhammers. A spokesman for the city’s Department of Transportation said the jackhammer work usually takes only a couple of days for any work site, so by the time you read this your nights should be more restful.
The milling, as it is called, is followed by a grace period of two weeks during which inspectors look at the street’s hardware – manhole covers, utility and sewer lines – to make sure no repairs are needed. It would be a shame to have to rip up a new street because a water main burst. After the inspection, a paving crew takes another couple of days to resurface the road.
The tradeoff for a couple of summer nights with the windows shut and your ears plugged is a new road. “It’s a minor inconvenience in order to have a new road that will last 10 years,” the department spokesman, Craig Chin, said. Mr. Chin said he lives in Queens.