Center Medians Installed on East Houston Street This Weekend
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Any given day, the stretch of Houston Street east of Eldridge looks like a scene plucked directly from the celluloid of E.T. The plastic tents, yards of tubing, wire spindles, trucks, and workmen with dangling keys are a regular sight.
Now, at least, two blocks of roadway are being capped and planted. Crews working overtime this weekend were busy laying the foundation for the center medians between Ludlow and Norfolk Streets. The enormous, six-foot-high concrete slabs were lowered into their respective resting spots yesterday. For now, it’s a series of trenches. Soon enough, though, flower beds and trees will return to the middle of the road.
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Of course, this imposition of materials is all related to the ongoing East Houston reconstruction project, which actually began as part of a larger capital works initiative some ten years ago. The goal is to replace the infrastructure of water piping. Projected completion date is sometime in December 2015, according to DOT press materials, two years tardy of initial target. We’ll pencil in the calendar for 2020.
Lower East Siders can also keep tabs on these streetside developments by heading to the CB3 website. The DOT provides a convenient weekly report about scheduled work in the area.
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Some days East Houston feels like this scene from “E.T.”
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