Quantcast

The DNAinfo archives brought to you by WNYC.
Read the press release here.

City Still Trying to Find Cause of Sinking Road in Rockaway Park

By Katie Honan | February 3, 2016 5:28pm
 The street has been closed since Dec. 31, 2015. 
The street has been closed since Dec. 31, 2015. 
View Full Caption
DNAinfo/Katie Honan

ROCKAWAY PARK — The Department of Transportation is still trying to figure out what's causing a Rockaway road to sink.

Officials closed Beach Channel Drive between Beach 108th and Beach 113th streets on Dec. 31, 2015, citing poor conditions. It remained closed as of Wednesday.

Although they would only say the street was closed due to "roadway conditions," the street along Jamaica Bay has significant dips and appears to be in danger of collapse — although the agency is not sure why. 

An official with the DOT said National Grid, which owns the former Manufactured Gas Plant site next to the road, "has conducted soil borings at different points along the closed one-block section of Beach Channel Drive" to help determine what's undermining it.

They're also using "Ground Penetrating Radar" to check out the subsurface conditions, the officials said.

Between the 1870s and 1958, gas used for commercial purposes was produced at the Rockaway Park Manufactured Gas Plant adjacent to the closed street.

The work contaminated the site, according to National Grid which is currently carrying out remediation work under the guidance of the state's Department of Environmental Conservation.

Drivers have been re-routed around the Rockaway Freeway.

After complaints from the local community board and elected officials, the DOT visited the site last week to "determine what additional signage" needs to be added to calm any traffic along the detour, according to a DOT official.