NEW YORK, N.Y. — Chinatown residents who say they have been losing sleep to drilling and pounding after dark won a pause on Monday, when a Manhattan Supreme Court judge temporarily barred New York City from doing after-hours work at the new jail rising in their neighborhood.
The temporary restraining order took effect right away. Crews can keep building during normal permitted hours, but the extended evening shifts must stop while the court weighs the neighbors’ bid for a preliminary injunction, with arguments due back before the judge on Dec. 1.
The Chinatown building is one of four borough-based jails the city is putting up so it can shut Rikers Island, which by law must close in 2027. On Oct. 8, the city notified neighbors that it was stretching work hours on weekdays and adding Saturday shifts, saying the faster schedule would let the project finish two years sooner, in 2032.
Residents and local groups, including the nonprofit Welcome to Chinatown and Neighbors United Below Canal, sued the city and its contractor last week. Their court papers describe intense noise, dust and bright overnight lighting, and argue the city lacked the authority to run late-night work there and never completed an environmental review of the longer hours.
City officials have said they added sound blankets plus vibration and dust monitors around the site. They have also warned that without the extra hours the project could slip further and cost hundreds of millions of dollars more. Records on the 311 portal show five noise complaints nearby so far in October, each filed in the evening or late at night.
Section: More New York NY politics news
Filed under: New York NY Politics News
