CBS2 Demands Answers: Construction In The Heart Of Midtown Makes A Mess Of Traffic
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- Construction projects in the heart of Midtown are creating chaos for drivers and pedestrians alike.
You name the project, you can find it from high above to down below construction is making a mess in the neighborhood.
The jackhammer crew doing utility work for Con Ed in the middle of the intersection at 57th and Broadway is one thing, but combine that with the construction of the 95 story tower going up a couple of hundred feet to the east, and the man with the flag who can bring everything here to a complete standstill and it's a match made in traffic hell.
"It's kind of crippled this whole street for the day," one commuter told CBS2's Steve Langford.
Just before noon on Wednesday, the construction was taking up precious space making crosstown traffic miserable.
"It's terrible. They should be doing this off hours. Why they doing it in the middle of the day?" a commuter said.
For transit users 57th Street has brought bus traffic to a crawl as travel times have more than doubled west from 8th Ave to the river and back, according to a bus dispatcher,
The avenues feeding into the gridlock are hurting too. It is painful watching trucks trying to make a turn, and pedestrians appear to be making better time than vehicles.
The City Department of Transportation said one skyscraper has permits until June 15 to occupy a bus lane from Monday to Friday between 7 a.m. and 4 p.m. but said nothing about stopping traffic completely as CBS2's cameras observed on Wednesday.
The DOT said they have issued 6 notices of violation for work going on between 8th Ave and Broadway.
Con Ed said gas main work will continue until 2017 from 7th Ave to 11th Ave.