July's Fourth and Final Episode of Friday Features

There is a dizzying amount of work being done on our streets and sidewalks, from Mullen on Warren at 3rd to Colarusso on the Ferry Street bridge to Luizzi on lower Warren to Delaware Engineering and Colarusso in the 400 block of Union. (I'm pretty sure that block of Union will have to be completely shut down while that work takes place.)  I know I'm forgetting something else.

As HUDseen reported on exactly one month ago in regard to Mullen's subterranean street work, our DPW Superintendent has this to say in early April at a council meeting: "Mullen should be wrapping up on Warren Street in early May."   We are now nearly upon the early days of August and Mullen was busy on Warren at 3rd this morning making all sorts of racket and dig, dig, digging away.  I would say that we are now three months beyond when our Great Communicator on Zoom predicted things would be quieter on Warren and not so full of machinery and guys in hard hats.  You know, like back to normal during a summer to remember.  Mr. Perry has not made mention of Mullen's continuing work since that meeting four months ago when he made it sound like everything was working as planned. He has failed to update his Mullen forecast, failed to tell everyone what the hell is going on, and failed to give us a clue as to why Mullen is taking so goddamn long to get the hell out of town with their noises, dust, distractions, trucks spewing toxins, parked machinery (especially on the weekends!), closed streets, orange cones and UTILITY WORK AHEAD signs.  Don't forget the bloody sinkholes popping up every other day!

Last week on 3rd.  Still here, there, everywhere.

Last week on 3rd.

Last week on 3rd at Columbia.  Walk in 
the street, you have no choice!

Earlier this week on 3rd, road closed!

Hammering away this morning at 7:00 
on Warren at 3rd, a Friday in late July,
many days after "early May."

Yesterday on Allen Street, I spoke with a friendly fellow who works for a subcontractor by the name of Premier Utility Services that locates pipes below our streets and sidewalks for utility companies.  He has been spraying A LOT of paint on our surfaces recently, he grew up here, and he knows our infrastructure like only a few do.  I pointed out one of DPW's sinkhole projects on Allen to him, saying, "Look, our city is falling apart."  He immediately responded, "Oh, wait til you see Front Street soon.  It's going to be an absolute mess, they're going to rip it all up."  Wonderful, just what we need!  (Who will be doing that excavating?) 

Well, what is DPW up to on our streets?  Not too much, it seems.

Barely begun, over two weeks after the 
cones, barriers and wood arrived to cover
the sinkhole.

They are in the midst of fixing (looking at?) two sinkholes adjacent to storm drains, both of them on Allen Street, though as of yesterday they hadn't actually done much of anything.   One of drains with a sinkhole was excavated early this week by DPW, and the other still has yet to be dug up.  Also, the storm drain over on Carroll with the copious amount of missing asphalt still has yet to be touched, and the cone that someone placed over the drain last week was gone by Monday.  That cone has had been floating back and forth for two weeks while DPW has had their eyes -- or possibly just one eye -- on that ugly and dangerous situation for at least three weeks.  All we get is an unsecured cone when they finally get around to noticing that it has been moved.  DPW should adopt a motto for the back of their employees' uniforms.   In large letters, it will say SAFETY LAST.

It would be interesting to have Robert Perry
tell us why it is taking his DPW so long to get to this.
Of course, whatever his reason(s), would probably be just lies.