"Debris" raining on Staten Island Expressway - media yawns

Late last Sunday four of the six lanes of the Staten Island Expressway were closed for several hours because of what was described in local reports as "debris raining down on cars" from an overpass, almost as if this was some adverse weather event. Staten Island Advance newspaper at least reported the event and said that traffic had "groaned to a halt" (love the mangled cliche there) while crews from the NY State DOT installed planks to the bottom of I-beams to "create a catch" for any further falling debris.

Local residents said they had been complaining for weeks about developing potholes, the shaking of the Hylan Boulevard overpass by trucks passing over, and a "trampoline-like" movement when walking over it.

State DOT officials had marked various portions of the overpass deck for repairs for damage during the winter but apparently nothing had been done.

None of the major New York newspapers or TV mentioned the "debris rain" incident so far as we can discover by searches of their publications. AP seems to have missed it.

This is surely a sensational story going largely unreported where it matters in the Manhattan press.

Staten Island Expressway is an interstate (I-278) and the major link between central New Jersey and Staten Island with the Verrazano Narrows Bridge and Brooklyn, Queens and Manhattan.

It carries 120k vehicles/day.

Here is a vivid example of "crumbing infrastructure" and of state DOT neglect which could easily have killed a number of motorists.

NYSDOT is clearly not up to the job. This is the case for tolling major interstates like the SIE, and putting a user supported entity in charge.

TOLLROADSnews 2009-04-27