Abreu questions DOT on Intro 866 current public notice practices
Abreu asks what public notice DOT currently provides for disruptive work lasting at least seven days. Jeffrey Malamy describes DOT's notification toolkit including meetings with elected officials, community boards, flyers, street ambassadors at pedestrian hubs, and electronic sharing of project information.
Now I want to just pivot to my last set of questions on Intro 866 regarding Epstein's bill requiring DOT to post notification signs regarding upcoming disruptive work.
This bill would require signage for work that would cause a disruption for at least seven days.
What public notice does DOT currently provide for work that will cause disruption for at least seven days?
Are there issues in the process that could be fixed?
Hi, yes, thanks for that question.
So I'm Jeffrey Malamy, Director of Street Improvement Projects.
Happy to give you a response there.
So currently there's quite a lot that the agency does to notify the public of projects, you know, when they're in the...
Like the project planning phase through meetings with elected officials and their staffs and community boards and other stakeholders that we're aware of.
And those iterative processes likely lead to improving the performance of the projects that we're designing.
Once we get closer to implementation, there's a lot more notification that we do.
Again, through the elected officials offices and community boards, we post what's happening here flyers, which are kind of plain language, very easy to read, non-jargony,
that we put up along the corridor in advance of construction.
We also share those electronically and appreciate.
the work that you and your colleagues do to amplify those messages, to let even more of the community know that work will be ongoing.
We also have a street ambassador program because we know not everyone has the time or the flexibility to be engaged in community board meetings or to attend workshops.
So those folks often set up on the street by really popular pedestrian hubs and around
bus stops and subway stations and outside grocery stores so that New Yorkers just in the regular course of their days can happen by, learn about an upcoming project.
They can talk with the street ambassadors who can answer their questions or if they're pressed for time, just pick up a pamphlet or a flyer and learn more about the project on their own time.