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One TriBeCa Water Main Project Finishes As Another Begins

By Julie Shapiro | January 6, 2011 4:30pm

By Julie Shapiro

DNAinfo Reporter/Producer

TRIBECA — Just as the neighborhood is breathing a collective sigh of relief over the completion of a major water main project on Harrison Street, an even bigger one on nearby Hudson Street is just gearing up.

The $18 million Harrison Street project, which started in the fall of 2008 and also included work on Greenwich and Leonard streets, concluded around the end of 2010, the city announced this week.

"Everybody is really thrilled that it’s over," said Diane Lapson, president of the Independence Plaza North Tenant Association. "It’s been a long while."

But many of the residents and businesses that were relieved the Harrison Street project was over will soon find themselves at the center of the Hudson Street work.

"They don’t want to leave downtown Manhattan alone," said a frustrated worker at Downtown Wine & Liquors at the corner of Leonard and Hudson streets. "They don’t know the effect on businesses. They don’t know nothing. They just dig, dig, dig."

The worker, who declined to give his name, said the Harrison and Leonard construction had hurt the store’s business, and even though the work is done, many regulars still haven’t returned.

In addition to replacing old water pipes and installing new curbs and sewers during the project, the city also cleaned up the jumble of misaligned cobblestones and patches of pavement on the old streets.

"The road was just a disaster beforehand," said Nicole Blaskovic, 35, who lives on Harrison Street.

Lapson said she knew of at least three IPN tenants who tripped and fell while trying to cross the uneven street, including one woman who may have been concussed. To fix the problem, the city painstakingly installed new cobblestones on eight of the affected blocks once the subsurface work was complete.

"It took a while, but it’s worth it," Blaskovic said. "It’s a major improvement."

But at Puffy’s Tavern, the five-and-a-half-year Hudson Street water main project that is just getting started will mean less cash in the till.

Bartender Jessimae Peluso said she often gave away beer over the past couple years to make up for the noisy construction on Harrison Street.

"It’s like a nightmare," she said of the banging metal sounds. "But when you’re drunk, you don’t hear anything."

When told that construction would be returning to Puffy’s within the next few years, during which the city planned to tear up 15 blocks in north TriBeCa to connect existing water mains to the city’s new Third Water Tunnel, Peluso, 28, grimaced.

"Oh, great," she said. "I guess we’ll have to serve more free beer."