Manhattanville construction starts

With all the necessary city and state approvals obtained, Columbia’s plans for a new, 17-acre campus in Manhattanville have moved into the next stage: construction.

The latest work involves relocating and reconstructing parts of the neighborhood’s aging sewer system, which dates back to the 19th century, and boring on the west side of Broadway between 129th and 131st Streets, according to Columbia’s monthly construction newsletter.

Additionally, this week and next, Con Edison is installing new gas lines on the west side of Broadway at the 129th and 130th Street intersections. The M4 bus stop will be temporarily moved to the northwest corner of 125th and Broadway from its regular spot midway between 125th and 129th streets. And during working hours—10 p.m. to 6 a.m. Monday through Friday—metered parking spaces on that block of Broadway will be suspended, a portion of 129th Street closed, and left turns from 126th Street onto Broadway prohibited.

The gas line work was expected to begin Wednesday evening, but was postponed because Columbia and Con Edison had not obtained all the necessary permits, Community Board 9 chair Pat Jones said after a CB9 executive meeting that night at which University officials gave a presentation about the status of construction in the area.

The block of Broadway between 125th and 129th Streets is home to Floridita Tapas Bar & Restaurant, which occupies three storefronts in University-owned buildings. Owner Ramon Diaz expressed concerns about the safety of the construction work and what he saw as a lack of transparency on Columbia’s part.

Diaz, along with activists from the local group of Manhattanville expansion critics, Coalition to Preserve Community, had planned a rally outside Floridita at nine Wednesday evening, where City Council member Inez Dickens and challenging candidate Landon Dais had been expected to appear. But the protest was canceled when the construction was postponed.

Diaz said the work—which would relocate the gas line that feeds the Floridita kitchen and involve temporarily tearing up the sidewalk in front of the restaurant—will unfairly affect his business. He noted that when there was construction outside the restaurant last fall, eight traffic accidents occurred in three weeks, including one in which a Columbia student was hit by a car and suffered minor injuries.

University officials Jennifer Colon and Marcelo Velez told him that Con Edison considered it highly unlikely this work would pose any danger and that it was scheduled for night hours so as not to impact his business.

Colon and Velez met with Diaz on Sept. 3 to notify him of the upcoming construction, both Diaz and University spokeswoman Victoria Benitez confirmed. Benitez declined to comment on Diaz’s complaints.

Columbia releases monthly newsletters describing upcoming construction in broad terms, as well as more detailed biweekly outlines of work to take place and how it will affect locals. Officials also brief the CB9 executive committee on the status of construction quarterly, Benitez said.

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