Major Staten Island Thoroughfares To Be Milled and Repaved
Local streets around Staten Island are being repaved in time for the start of the school season. The repaving involves what is known as milling, which is the removal of multiple layers of asphalt, sometimes a single lane at a time. The milling creates a rough and uneven surface between lanes that last for days at a time. It also removes the lane markers and crosswalks, which makes it very difficult to drive in your lane, which now amounts to a judgment call by drivers.
Hylan Boulevard, a dangerous street even when lane markers are present, is currently undergoing the milling and paving process. When the road is milled a single lane at a time, the difference between the milled surface and paved surface can be as great as 5 inches. When the inside of your car's tires get caught between these surfaces, it is very difficult to steer and takes substantial effort to have all 4 of your tires put back onto an even surface. Sometimes, these differences are not exactly where the lane markers once were. When a car is driving next to another vehicle, and the car's wheels drift off from the paved surface to the milled surface, accidents can result when the cars are drawn together. Accidents also happen when lane markers are removed, especially at night. Since Hylan Boulevard is a multiple-lane street, cars driving may drift into another lane, causing an accident.
Another hidden danger lies in the milled areas that surround manhole covers and gas and water access covers. Since these objects are made to be level with the new pavement, they naturally will rise above the surrounding pavement when milled, creating a dangerous condition for those driving and walking on Hylan Boulevard. I have had cases where a car was actually stopped in its tracks when its chassis hit the ten raised manhole cover on a street awaiting re-pavement. These conditions don't go away over night. Instead, the surfaces remain in that condition for days at a time before they are repaved, which is too long for Staten Island residents. I appreciate the City's attempts to maintain our infrastructure but I feel that getting to the "cure" creates too great a danger.
If you are involved in an accident on a freshly milled roadway, the City of New York may bear some responsibility for your injuries. It is important that you get in touch with a lawyer as your time to file a claim is limited by law.
