The mystery of the desolate Red Hook ballfields was solved on March 11, as the Parks Department, along with the EPA, swooped upon the Rec Center for one of their infrequent community updates. They evidently waited until they had something to say, which was that, after years of planning, and a lot of false promises, their contractors were about to do something in and around the barricaded ballfields.
According to Brooklyn Parks Commissioner Marty Maher, they had a contract that had construction slated to begin in the fall, but for various and sundry reasons it didn’t.
“Though the start time was not exactly what we said, the finish time for all of the project remains unchanged,” Maher said. “We just started last week on some of the smaller trees and you will see trailers coming on sight soon and work starting in earnest in the next couple of weeks.”
What he was saying is that the trees around the ballfields, especially the ones on Bay Street, would be chopped down shortly.
“We were working with the EPA and the contractor to complete construction plans that needed to get a number of approvals by the EPA,” Maher said. “The EPA has approved all the plans that were prepared. Now we are mobilizing on site.”
In addition to the trees, a new fence will be erected, concluding what they call “stage one.”
Stage two will include the soil movement and the raising of the fields, which will take the most time.
Eric Mattes, the Brooklyn Borough Landscape Design Director at the NYC Department of Parks and Recreation, gave more details.
“The contractor is going to start doing removal operations in the next couple of weeks,” Mattes said. “Once he gets his construction fence set up with the stabilized construction entrance and an area for cleaning the vehicles, then he will start scraping off any sort of vegetation and doing soil removals.”
The construction fence around the perimeter will be six feet high and will have fabric on it to prevent any dust or debris from getting off the site and into the neighborhood. They will regularly water down the site during dry spells to prevent dust from spreading, and the EPA will be on site once a week to help.
To prevent the dust from spreading, there will be continuous preliminary dust monitoring during the soil disturbance.
“Instruments around the perimeter of the project will be monitoring dust levels,” Mattes said. “You will see these weekly dust monitoring results. We want to make sure the community is not affected by the dust.”
There are two levels that the dust disturbance levels can potentially get to: one is the not as severe “action level,” and the other is the more severe “alert level.”
It the dust gets to an action level, Parks will be alerted and the contractor will need to make sure the site is boarded down to prevent dust from leaving the site.
If the dust problem is at the alert level, then they will stop all work at the site until the EPA finds that all the dust is contained. Parks does not anticipate getting to the action level based on the frequent spraying, and perimeter fencing which will have a dust curtain.
Phase One is still scheduled to be completed in the spring of 2020.
Surrounding fields 5-8 will be a bioswale. On the surface, five to six inches of grass or top soil will be removed. They will bring in the aggregate and soil (which will be tested prior to arrival at the site) to fill this area.
Stage three of Phase One will include synthetic turf for the fields, new pavement, new curbs and new fencing. Also, the disposal of the excess material from the fields will be brought off site to a waste disposal.
Mattes added that during Phase One they will be planting 62 new trees, 900 shrubs and 5,000 perennials and ornamental grasses and that the perennials and grasses will be in the perimeter bioswale around the fields.
Maher questions about the trees
“There is a palate of trees that the city puts in,” Maher said. “They all help everybody in the community. They provide cleaning, they provide air. They purify the atmosphere and provide shade. These are not going to be apple or pear picking trees.”
According to Maher, there is lots of salt in the air around ballfields 5-8 and the trees will need to be salt tolerant. The professional foresters will be selecting the palate trees, and the other current trees will be removed.
Phase Two, which includes Ball Field 9 (baseball field) and Soccer Field 2, is still in the procurement phase. They will be awarding phase two to a contractor soon.
Construction for Phase Two is slated to start in fall of 2019 and be completed in the spring of 2021.
Phase Three will include Ball Fields 1-4 (the baseball fields in the back near IKEA) and the soccer/football field that is surrounded by the track. The most work will be done in this stage.
The four baseball fields and the soccer/football field will all be reconstructed with synthetic turf. The track will be reconstructed with a rubberized surface.
Also, part of Phase Three will be the reconstruction of the current handball courts and installation of an adult fitness circuit along a new pathway.
“This is all currently on schedule,” Mattes said. “We are getting close to completing that design. That will be done in a few months and the anticipated completion will be in fall of 2021.”
According to Parks, it is estimated that 4,900 cubic yards of contaminated materials will be removed, and 10,900 cubic yards of clean fill and drainage will be brought into the site.
People in the community have raised the issue of wanting the materials barged in and Parks said that for a few reasons that this is not at all practical.
The first reason is that there are no appropriately licensed waste transfer locations near the site. The Henry Street Basin, which was a location that was brought up as a potential site, is privately owned in the land underneath the basin, which makes that location not possible.
In addition, at the Henry Street Basin, the border deck is shallow, and the bulkhead is falling apart. As part of Phase Two, Parks is in the process of completing contract documents to reconstruct the bulkhead. The documents only have to be given final approvals.
“We looked into the Department of Sanitation facility at Hamilton Avenue,” Mattes said. “The facility does not permit import of any material. It can only be used to export municipal solid waste, not soil, and the facility itself would need to be altered to import or export soil.”
Other setbacks in the pursuit of barging in materials instead of having them come in via trucks is that the transport insurance is required and there is a limited number of barge companies that are licensed to transport materials used to fix the Red Hook Ball Fields.
As a safety precaution, while the site is under construction the bus stop that is currently located at Lorraine and Hicks Street will be moved across the street.
An emphasis will be put on making sure that there is a specific entrance for the trucks and that everything is cleaned and decontaminated.
The equipment that will be brought in will be decontaminated, and the soil will be wheeled in and out of the site at the stabilized construction entrance.
“Adjacent to that entrance, there will be a separate area where the trucks get washed down on the aggregate area as well and then exit the site once they are appropriately cleaned,” Parks said. “There is a decontamination area and a stabilized construction entrance.”
In terms of all of the trucks that will be bringing in all of the materials, they will be staying on the commercial and industrial districts and will not be allowed to go in the residential roads or districts. After leaving the highway, they will primarily be on Smith Street and Court Street before coming down Bay Street.
Jim Tampakis, who has been a maritime business owner in Red Hook for many years, asked about the trucks and more specifically how they will come in via Hamilton Avenue. He wanted to know if the trucks will take a right on Hamilton Ave or come via another direction.
Maher said that he all he could say was that the trucks will follow the commercial route that is already established. He did not know where specifically the trucks will make a left or right.
John McGettrick brought up the issue of whether two developments that will be happening or will potentially be happening near the ball fields that should be taken into consideration.
Adjacent to the ball fields will be a creation of mega warehouses that will be over one million square feet,” McGettrick said. “With the active warehouse you are talking about hundreds of truck trips per day at each facility.”
He also brought up the proposed BQX streetcar that the city has proposed, and if it happens the route would go along Bay Street. The BQX would cause elimination of parking spots, and many people who use the ballfields park on Bay Street.
