The final phase of Operation Mainstreet, the Village of New Hyde Park’s project to upgrade the village’s business district, is set to begin following state Department of Transportation’s approval of a $1.46 million bid from Bohemia-based J Anthony Enterprises on the project.
Village officials said the DOT approved the J Anthony bid on the project this week. The village board accepted the bid and submitted it to the state agency late last month.
“It’s wonderful. It’s taken forever to get to this point,” said New Hyde Park Trustee Donald Barbieri, who has worked with the DOT in shepherding the project through the approval process.
Barbieri said a pre-construction meeting with J Anthony Enterprises and representatives from the DOT and village personnel is being organized for next week. He said the contractor will have four months to complete work on the project after the paperwork is signed.
“It’s probably close to a year from where we wanted it to be,” said New Hyde Park Mayor Robert Lofaro. “Working with the state of New York has been one of the most frustrating experiences.”
The final phase of Operation Mainstreet’s plans, which were designed by Saratoga Associates, include bulb-outs – rounded corners that would extend slightly into the roadway – to be added at locations yet to be determined, along with installation of solid medians with plantings and access to water sources to maintain the plantings.
Benches will also be installed on sidewalks, which would be paved with the same rustic red brickwork already in place in some sections of the road near the intersection of Jericho Turnpike and Lakeville Road.
The New Hyde Park project is being funded through a federal transportation appropriation of $1.425 million secured by U.S. Rep. Carolyn McCarthy under the community block grant program.
“I can’t wait until it’s all said and done. Hopefully the aesthetic improvements will make for a nicer pedestrian walk along Jericho Turnpike,” Barbieri said.
The village will coordinate work associated with the DOT’s current repaving work on Jericho Turnpike, Barbieri said. Repaving of the roadway is now complete from the Queens county line to Herricks Road.
The DOT contractor, Flushing-based Tully Construction is resurfacing Jericho Turnpike between the Queens County line east to Herricks Road during nighttime hours in the second phase of a $21.1 million DOT project aimed at improving the roadway and increasing pedestrian and motorist safety. Installation of count-down traffic lights by the DOT to make Jericho Turnpike safer to cross, will precede the work the village will commission.
“The project is on time. It is going to meet the completion time by the end of 2013,” DOT spokeswoman Eileen Peters said recently.
The project also includes reconstruction in daytime hours of the center median with colored and imprinted concrete and new planting boxes, installation of new traffic signs, and planting medians and sidewalks. Pavement detection loops – electrical loops embedded in the asphalt at intersections to regulate traffic lights – are also to be installed, Peters said.
