The state Department of Transportation’s project to repave and improve Jericho Turnpike will delay the start of the final phase of New Hyde Park’s project to upgrade the village’s business district until next week.
Village Trustee Donald Barbieri said Monday the village’s contractor, Bohemia-based J Anthony Enterprises, will hold up on its part of the village’s Operation Main Street project until the state contractor puts the finishing touches on its upgrade of Jericho Turnpike.
Barbeiri, the village board’s liaison to the state on the project, said J Anthony may start doing some work on the project as the DOT contractor, Flushing-based Tully Construction, completes paving on side streets.
He said Tully will also be installing countdown traffic signals at the intersections of Jericho Turnpike and New Hyde Park Road, Lakeville Road and Hillside Boulevard.
“The lion’s share of the project will be delayed until the paving of the side streets and the traffic lights are done by the state contractor,” Barbieri said. “We may get some of it done simultaneous with their work.”
The final phase of Operation Mainstreet, which Barbieri had originally expected to start last fall, has been previously delayed by changes required by the state. The village was also delayed by the DOT’s requirement that the village issue a declaration that the project would not have a negative environmental impact in May.
Barbieri along with other village trustees have repeatedly expressed frustration with the drawn out process of bringing the project to the finish line,
“It’s probably close to a year from where we wanted it to be,” said Village of New Hyde Park Mayor Robert Lofaro when the village board awarded the work to J Anthony. “Working with the state of New York has been one of the most frustrating experiences.”
J Anthony Enterprises has a $1.46 million contract to complete Operation Mainstreet, a project intended to make Jericho Turnpike safer and friendlier to pedestrian shoppers. The work will include the installation of bulb-outs – rounded corners that would extend slightly into the roadway – at locations yet to be determined, along with plantings in the new medians in the middle of Jericho Turnpike and access to water sources to maintain the plantings. Benches will also be installed on sidewalks, which would be paved with the same rustic red brickwork already in place in some sections of the road near the intersection of Jericho Turnpike and Lakeville Road.
The contractor recently posted signs in neighborhoods in the west side of the village informing residents that its work was about to begin on the west end of Jericho Turnpike.
Barbieri has said the village’s part in upgrading Jericho Turnpike will take approximately two months to complete.
The New Hyde Park project is being funded through a federal transportation appropriation of $1.425 million secured by U.S. Rep. Carolyn McCarthy under the community block grant program.
Tully Construction has resurfaced Jericho Turnpike in two phases as part of a $21.1 million DOT project. It repaved the busy thoroughfare between Herricks Road and Glen Cove Road in July and recently completed the second phase, repaving the roadway between Herricks Road and 225th Street in Bellerose Village.
