Barclays Center Construction Forces Pedestrians Onto The Street
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The new Nets arena in Brooklyn has taken some streets off the map, and now construction of a new subway entrance means that pedestrians are forced to walk in a lane on Flatbush Avenue. NY1's Transit reporter John Mancini filed the following report.Things are tight all over near the basketball arena going up in Prospect Heights, Brooklyn -- so tight that creating a safe path for pedestrians means putting them in an unlikely spot.
"The only way we could achieve that was to put the pedestrians in the roadway, which meant that we had to take a lane of traffic from Flatbush Avenue," says Forest City Ratner traffic consultant Sam Schwartz.
In the best of times, there is congestion between Atlantic Avenue and Dean Street, where six lanes are now five. To keep traffic moving, three lanes flow toward Manhattan in the mornings and pedestrians walk on blacktop between barriers.
The moves are being made here to allow construction of a new subway entrance, where Nets fans will enter the Barclays Center arena. The new entry will connect to the lines that run to Atlantic Terminal.
Few oppose the construction of the entrance, but in the area traffic was notorious even before all the construction.
"So far I think we're holding at the previous unacceptable levels, and we're really hoping the situation doesn't go from bad to worse," says Craig Hammerman, the district manager of Brooklyn's Community Board 6.
That desire is especially true for neighbors also coping with the addition of major retail.
"According to the environmental impact statement, this project was going to improve traffic around here. I don't think that's going to happen," says Prospect Heights resident Raul Rothblatt.
The original notice said all lanes would be restored by early 2012. Project-watchers were surprised when Forest City Ratner pushed it back to that summer, when the arena is to be finished.
"In the larger scheme, I think it's important as a symbol of the Atlantic Yards project, which is, who's really accountable for the project?" says "Atlantic Yards Report" blogger Norman Oder.
The Empire State Development Corporation, which is accountable for the project, told NY1 its "dedicated in-house team, now under the leadership of a new project manager... has successfully navigated the project... into the first steps of major construction."
Ratner's goal is to get all lanes open as soon as possible, perhaps as a few months before the arena opens.
Bruised by the long fight, residents are skeptical.
"We've seen more closures of sidewalks, more closures of streets at this point in the project than we were told were going to happen," says Prospect Heights resident Peter Krashes.
Residents also worry what will happen after Labor Day, when school reopens and vacations end.