East Houston Reconstruction Delayed Indefinitely, City Says

Still years behind schedule, the East Houston Reconstruction Project won’t be ending anytime soon. This despite the completion of the eastern leg as well as prior assurances to the contrary.

Earlier this summer, the expected completion date had been tagged as “by Labor Day,” according to the project bulletin board at Community Board 3. Labor Day has come and gone. When asked in July about the revised date, a spokesman from community liaison Dorne Edwards stated only that the street work would conclude in “September 2017.”

September has also come and gone.

And now the latest timetable is that there is no timetable. “The project is delayed due to utilities Con Ed/ESC, we are trying to complete A.S.A.P but unfortunately, I can not provide you with a completion date at this time,” another Dorne Edwards spokesperson told us.

As alluded to, there is still one major piece left for this nightmare to finally end. Putting that into perspective, if your child was born when this project started, he/she would be thirteen by now. Even though the Department of Design and Construction recently completed the block-long slate of upgrades between Chrystie Street/Second Avenue and the Bowery, the intersection of the Bowery is proving most stubborn.

The multimillion-dollar capital works initiative began on the west side of Manhattan back in 2004, and reached the Bowery roughly six years later in June 2010. This was the beginning of Phase II, initially slated to last only three years. Not surprisingly, the timetable was revised so many times it’s not even worth recounting the history. Through it all, businesses on these blocks suffered, from Russ & Daughters to Katz’s Deli (remember that epic water main break?), and Yonah Schimmel’s.