Attack of the Pavement Milling Machine!
Jack H sent some photos he took at 2 AM on May 15 during the first night of pavement milling of West 55th Street. As we all learned that night, pavement milling is LOUD--even with the noise abatement controls the City says it has in place on all pavement milling machines.
The West 55th Street Block Association found out about the milling operation on the street the same way everyone else did, on Friday. A bunch of signs mysteriously appeared on the trees saying that West 55 was due for "pavement milling." The first signs said it would begin on Monday, May 17. Then late in the afternoon, new signs went up saying it would begin three nights earlier, on Friday evening. (Thanks Carl for sending an update about the second set of signs!)
A quick Internet search revealed that "pavement milling" prepares an already paved road to be repaved. Basically, a big machine removes the old asphalt and cuts grooves in the bed so that the new asphalt adheres better.
The New York City Administrative Code allows street construction at night under a few basic rules, including the use of noise abatement technology. (See Title 24, Chapter 2, Sub-chapter 4, Section 24-223.) The Department of Transportation schedules routine street maintenance at night because it says it is less disruptive to city traffic and business and workers can get more done at night. Not surprisingly, the second most popular question on the DOT's list of Frequently Asked Questions is "Why are they always doing road construction work at night?"
Christine is going to call the Department of Transportation to see if we can get better notification of when street repairs/other construction are scheduled to happen on our block.
Pictured above is the milling machine or cold planer that chewed up the old asphalt on West 55th.
A conveyor belts transfers the asphalt into a dump truck.
The dump truck carries off the broken up asphalt
Quiet returns to the block
Good thing pavement milling happens only once every ten years. The street is scheduled to be resurfaced in the next two weeks.
