2 FEBRUARY 10, 2022 RIDGEWOOD TIMES WWW.QNS.COM
Juniper construction to begin again ‘in the coming weeks’
BY JULIA MORO
EDITORIAL@QNS.COM
@QNS
Construction at Juniper Valley
Park is expected to resume in the
upcoming weeks aft er work was
delayed last summer, according to the
city Parks Department.
The $5.25 million project was put on
hold in August of 2021 aft er inspections
during construction showed that segments
of the storm drainage system
needed to be replaced.
“The contractor is hard at work
behind the scenes obtaining permits
to address unforeseen drainage infrastructure
issues,” said Megan Moriarty,
a press offi cer for the Parks Department.
“On-site work is expected to resume in
the coming weeks.”
According to the Parks Department,
the project will not increase in cost. The
contractor, Applied Landscape Technologies,
is in the process of obtaining
permits from the Department of Transportation,
Department of Buildings and
the Department of Environmental Protection
to start working on the drainage
system.
“We look forward to renovating
the track and fi eld in Juniper Valley
Park and providing the community
with a new running track, synthetic
turf fi eld, adult fi tness area and more,”
Moriarty said.
Construction was meant to be
completed in the spring of this year,
according to the NYC Parks website.
Gary Giordano, the district manager of
Community Board 5, said that though
the Parks Department does great work,
this is not the fi rst time drainage issues
have come up during a capital parks
project.
“They do a good job when it comes to
reconstructing areas of the park as far
as play equipment and proper safety
surfacing,” Giordano said. “But, when
it comes to drainage and water issues,
I see that as their weak point. This is
not the fi rst recent park project where
drainage was a problem.”
Councilman Robert Holden also criticized
Parks, saying the department has
“botched every single project at Juniper
Valley Park.”
“There is technology available that
could avoid delays like this, but Parks
does not do their homework before
bidding the projects out and I’m sick
of it,” Holden said. “Problems like this
drive up the cost and the amount of time.
Sometimes a park or a section of a park
is closed for months or longer, denying
residents the use of it. I’m hopeful that
it will get better under the new commissioner.
As usual, getting something
done with the city is no walk in the park.”
Giordano mentioned that reconstruction
at Frank Principe Park and
Rosemary’s Playground also had drainage
and water issues. At Rosemary’s
Playground, Giordano said that to his
knowledge drainage issues arose aft er
NYC Parks’ construction.
“Here I am writing to Parks about
extensive ponding on the playground
area that was just recently reconstructed,”
Giordano said. “So, the question
becomes: why, with a several million
dollar parks projects, do we have this
big ponding condition?”
With Giordano’s observations of
previous park projects in his district,
he admitted that he is nervous about
the outcome of Juniper’s construction.
Moriarty said that Parks is committed
to completing capital projects on
time though unforeseen conditions do
arise.
“While we always conduct site investigations
when preparing a design, in
this instance the unforeseen fi eld conditions
uncovered during construction
have required a re-design of the storm
drainage system,” Moriarty said. “We
are doing everything we can to quickly
complete construction and reopen this
renovated amenity to the community.”
Plans for Juniper Valley Park reconstruction Courtesy of NYC Parks
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