Virtual meeting between NYCHA-Disaster Recovery department and EPA

The New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) Disaster Recovery department and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) held a virtual meeting on Thursday about the soil sampling at the Red Hook Houses related to Sandy construction.

There was also an update about the two recent gas outages at the Red Hook Houses caused by the construction that has been happening. Joy Sinderbrand, who is the vice president of NYCHA’s Recovery and Resilience Department, updated everyone about the outages.

The first disruption happened during excavation a few weeks ago when the contractor hit a plastic gas pipe that led to the loss of natural gas in two buildings. NYCHA was able to restore gas for heat and hot water but they were not able to fix the gas for cooking.

“We try to avoid this kind of impact and it is a top priority for safety across the program,” Sinderband said. “We want to use this as an opportunity to get even better and more stringent on our protocols.

She added that there is new coordination between NYCHA and national grid. In addition to doing utility markings of their drawings, they are sending staff the the site before any excavation so they can locate the valve boxes.

“We (capital projects) have been working closely with operations to stay up to date with the gas pipe replacement project,” Sinderband said.

NYCHA has secured $700,000 for the two buildings. They have completed a site visit for scoping, have awarded the project to a vendor and have given the vendor a notice to proceed. The company, RJ Bruno, is very familiar with gas pipe replacement.

The company was on site on Thursday, November 6, doing prep work and waiting for the permits for next steps.

Property management is using Covid safe methods of communication to communicate with Das and residents. Sinderbrand said when they get updates from property management they send those out.

The second recent outage was on November 4. This most recent one was a water pipe break in an area where there had been digging about one week before.

“This was hand digging and that hand digging was about four feet above the water pipe,” Sinderband said. “This represents a whole new level of sensitivity of infrastructure because it is hard to get more careful than hand digging especially since the hand digging was not near the pipe that had the break.”

Minimal vibrations caused this disruption that happened on November 4 leading to building three being without water for a few hours at night.

“We were able to make this emergency repair,” Sinderband said. “We were able to do it as quickly as we could because of the new closer coordination between NYCHA and DEP.”

They are working together to make sure that when unforeseen issues arise that the right staff and materials are at the site as soon as possible. NYCHA capital projects works closely with property management to make sure water is available during unplanned emergencies.

Author

Share:

Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn

Comments are closed.

READ OUR FULL PRINT EDITION

click here to see our previous issues.

Our Sister Publication

a word from our sponsors!

Latest Media Guide!

Where to find the Star-Revue

Instagram

How many have visited our site?

wordpress hit counter

Social Media

Most Popular

On Key

Related Posts

Special birthday issue – information for advertisers

Author George Fiala George Fiala has worked in radio, newspapers and direct marketing his whole life, except for when he was a vendor at Shea Stadium, pizza and cheesesteak maker in Lancaster, PA, and an occasional comic book dealer. He studied English and drinking in college, international relations at the New School, and in his spare time plays drums and

PS 15’s ACES program a boon for students with special needs, by Laryn Kuchta

At P.S. 15 Patrick F. Daly in Red Hook, staff are reshaping the way elementary schoolers learn educationally and socially. They’ve put special emphasis on programs for students with intellectual disabilities and students who are learning or want to learn a second language, making sure those students have the same advantages and interactions any other child would. P.S. 15’s ACES

Big donors taking an interest in our City Council races

The New York City Council primary is less than three months away, and as campaigns are picking up steam, so are donations. In districts 38 and 39 in South Brooklyn, Incumbents Alexa Avilés (District 38) and Shahana Hanif (District 39) are being challenged by two moderate Democrats, and as we reported last month, big money is making its way into

Wraptor celebrates the start of spring

Red Hook’s Wraptor Restaurant, located at 358 Columbia St., marked the start of spring on March 30. Despite cool weather in the low 50s, more than 50 people showed up to enjoy the festivities. “We wanted to do something nice for everyone and celebrate the start of the spring so we got the permits to have everyone out in front,”