Walking along Parkview Terrace parallel to Jerome Avenue, there is no shortage of people complaining about the $15 million construction project that has inconvenienced them since fall 2015.  The complaints range from limited crosswalks, to excessive noise, to lost patience in city promises of quickly finishing the project, which began nearly four years ago.  

As Kevin Gonzalez walks his Doberman along Parkview Terrace, he points to the orange and white concrete barriers that narrow the space enough for a vehicle to pass through.  “I was almost hit by a car right there,” says Gonzalez.

Gonzalez has similar complaints of how the construction work has limited the field of view of drivers along Jerome Avenue. “They aren’t slowing down because of the construction and I think they should put more signs with lights telling drivers to slow down,” Gonzalez says.

The plan to revamp the retaining wall goes back years. In June 2005, AECOM Engineering Co. inspected the retaining wall and ranked it as “poor,” assessing it as being in an “advanced stage of deterioration,” according to Shoshana Khan, a spokesperson for the city Department of Design and Construction (DDC).

Construction work started on the retaining wall in the fall 2015. With a projected cost of $15 million, the original plan has met with numerous delays.

At the Feb. 27 CB7 General Board Meeting, Maria Centeno, executive director of the office of Community Outreach and notification for the DDC, revealed that Con Edison delayed the construction process because of the relocation of a soil processing facility that tested the excavations from the site.  She also explained that the Transit Authority became involved in the delays when drilling work for the project got close to the elevated #4 subway train.

As these delays prolong the work, the impact extends beyond annoyance to those who live in the area.

Francisco Mejia, 36, manager of 12 E. Deli Grocery Food, Inc., just feet away from the construction site, says the construction has negatively affected business.  “Over the last two years I estimate my business has dropped by at least 20 percent,” says Mejia.

Beyond the direct hit to his business, Mejia notes that some people have moved out of the area and he knows of others that have sold their cars because of the loss of street parking spaces.  “I don’t blame them.  If I lived here, I would’ve left this neighborhood by now,” Mejia says.

As a quality of life issue, the noise from the construction has also affected residents for a number of years.  Dulce Javier, 73, lives at a building on Morris Avenue, but has a bird’s-eye view of the construction work from her fifth-floor apartment.  “From the beeping noises trucks make to the loud noises of all the construction equipment, it’s been a terrible experience for me and my grandson.  Sometimes he wakes from his afternoon nap all startled because of the noise,” Javier says, speaking in Spanish.

The DDC now anticipates completion of the project by this summer.

Some locals are skeptical of DDC’s projection.  Mejia is one of them.  “I remember when the project first started it was going to take a year, then two.  Now I don’t believe it when it’s just talk.  Let’s see if they can finish it this summer,” Mejia says.