DOB Unveils Real-Time Map Plotting Essential and Emergency Construction Sites

At the end of March, Governor Cuomo froze almost all construction projects statewide in response to the fast-moving COVID-19 pandemic and its infection of 19 workers around the city. Only essential projects are granted a pass – infrastructure and transportation projects, emergency repairs, hospital building, and work on affordable housing.

It is these exception jobs that the Department of Buildings recently plotted on a handy, real-time map.

[The map] identifies essential and emergency construction work involving affordable housing, hospitals, health care facilities, and utilities. It also includes emergency work to protect the safety or health of building occupants, restore essential service like heat and electricity, or projects where stopping the work would create an unsafe condition. It does not include construction sites not under DOB jurisdiction – for example, sites in NYC under the jurisdiction of Port Authority, the MTA or the Federal government.

The tool enables visitors to drill down to micro-level detail by neighborhood. Here on the Lower East Side, there are several projects that can still progress. The new tower at the northeast corner of Delancey and Orchard Streets, for example, is considered an “essential” site that requires emergency work; Essex Crossing also gets a pass for its new mixed-use development, The Artisan, located at 180 Broome.

“An unprecedented crisis requires an unprecedented response,” said Commissioner La Rocca. “To help keep New Yorkers safe during these uncertain times, we will be out in force to confirm non-essential sites have been closed down, and essential construction work continues in a safe manner. At the same time, this real-time map will provide the public with greater transparency about ongoing construction across the city.”

The map is updated daily.