Residents and business owners in Williamsburg say they are furious about construction at Lorimer Street subway station.
The over 14 months of construction work has negatively impacted the quality of life in the area, according to Brooklyn residents.
“It’s unbelievably frustrating,” said Joseph Franquinha, owner of Crest Hardware and Urban Garden Center. “There’s a lack of communication, a lot of deflecting and empty promises.”
Business owners near the station say the work is blocking entrances and giving customers the impression that their shops are closed.
“Not only is it a quality-of-life issue, it’s been taken up a number of parking spots and affected our building,” he said.
Some residents say the construction is so loud, it feels as if it is going on inside their homes.
“The vibrations at times were earthquake-like. My furniture was shaking,” said resident Lisa Summa.
Summa says the MTA failed to deliver vibration monitors that they promised to her and her neighbors.
“They assured us they would come and look at our building, photograph them and put in vibration monitors. I have only heard of one building that has a vibration monitor. No one on my street received one,” she said.
News 12 reached out to the MTA spokesperson Michael Cortez responded with the following statement:
“We have ensured a safe worksite to address any potential quality of life concerns at this location and will continue to do so as work is completed to make the Lorimer Station fully accessible.”
Councilmember Jennifer Guiterez also wrote a letter to the MTA about the situation. It stated in part, “We want this project to be completed and the station to be complete and accessible… They aren’t being compliant and they’re not working well with our city agencies. We want to be able to bring them in and be able to work through these things.”