Move your asphalt! Paving plan released

By Matthew Lysiak
The Brooklyn Paper

Twenty-two local roads from Bay Ridge to Bensonhurst will be getting a well-deserved makeover this summer — a tiny fraction of the thoroughfares that deserve the spring cleaning, at least one local official said.

Commuters will get a smoother ride, of course, but only after enduring a few bumpy weeks of construction.

Josephine Beckmann, the district manager of Community Board 10 in Bay Ridge, said she was pleased by the list, but wanted more roads in her neighborhood to get the pampered treatment.

“Overall, I am very happy,” she said. “The roads that need it most are going to get the attention, but there is a lot of work that still needs to be done.”

She said the neighborhood got about one-third of what it requested. Specifically, a stretch of 65th Street was left off the list.

“The Department [of Transportation] has its own way of evaluating needs, and you never get everything you ask for,” the ever-cheery Beckmann said.

The work at each site should take no longer than two weeks from beginning to end, according to Beckmann.

Of course, it doesn’t take two weeks to pave a street. First, the top layer of asphalt is removed in a process called “milling.” Then (and here’s the part that drives drivers nuts), the Department of Transportation leaves the bumpy road surface unpaved for a week so that utility companies can make sure nothing has been damaged. If DOT gets the go-ahead, the road is resurfaced with fresh sticky asphalt, which takes an additional day or two.

Local drivers say they will trade the two weeks of inconvenience for a smoother ride down the road.

“Some of the roads can do a number on your car,” said Bensonhurst resident Alex Maur. “I think the work is long overdue.”

The Department of Transportation said all paving should be completed by July 1, but added that individual sites could be rescheduled. The agency would not comment about Beckmann’s request for far more street repavings.