ROCKAWAY BEACH — Part of a major roadway on the Rockaway peninsula has been closed for emergency repairs after officials declared the street unsafe.
Drivers have been detoured from Beach Channel Drive between Beach 108th and Beach 113th streets after the Department of Transportation closed it on Dec. 31, according to a spokesman.
The one-block segment along Jamaica Bay was shuttered due to "roadway conditions" but the DOT would not elaborate further and could not provide a timeline for when it would reopen again.
The stretch of road by the current National Grid site, a former Manufactured Gas Plant that has gone through remediation, has been problematic to drivers for years — with notable dips and bumps.
Jonathan Gaska, the area's community board district manager, said the road's been deteriorating for a decade.
"I think it's 10 years of neglect and erosion and it just finally went," he said.
Before the city began to repair a protective wall along the bay, water would often flow underneath the road, he added.
In 2012, months before Hurricane Sandy flooded the peninsula, local politicians urged the city to repair bulkheads that separated Beach Channel Drive from Jamaica Bay.
The "battered" bulkhead is currently under reconstruction to shore it up from the bay's tide, but it's unclear if the construction contributed to damaging the street.
As a result of the closure, National Grid has had to halt its final stage of remediation work on the former gas plant, a spokeswoman said.
