City Plans Massive, Years-Long Water Main Job Along Broadway

The Upper West Side is bracing for a major overhaul beneath one of its busiest avenues, after city officials laid out plans this week to replace aging water mains under Broadway.

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At Community Board 7’s Transportation Committee meeting on June 9, the Department of Design and Construction walked through a project that will tear into several blocks — and test the patience of the businesses and residents along them.

The work, cataloged by the city as Project #MED619, runs along Broadway from West 92nd to West 97th Streets and then east along West 97th Street between Broadway and Columbus Avenue (crossing Amsterdam Avenue). DDC expects construction to begin in the fall of 2027 and continue for about three years, into 2030.

Most of the investment is buried out of sight. Working on behalf of the Department of Environmental Protection, DDC plans to swap out the old infrastructure for new 36-inch steel and 48-inch ductile iron trunk water mains — along with about 300 feet of combined sewers and some 14 fire hydrants. While the street is open, the city will also fold in a handful of surface upgrades: new street lighting, ADA-compliant pedestrian ramps, and audible pedestrian signals, plus restored curbs and sidewalks and stretches of curb-to-curb repaving. The point, DDC said, is to head off the kind of sudden water main break that floods streets and knocks out service without warning.

For a few buildings on the route, there’s a perk buried in the disruption. As part of a DEP program, the city will replace lead service lines — the pipes that carry water from the main into a home — at no cost to the property owner, work the agency pegged as worth upwards of $10,000. DDC said three addresses in the project area currently qualify, generally older buildings, and urged owners not to opt out of a free upgrade they’d otherwise have to pay for themselves.

Then there are the rats. DDC told the board it will bring in a professional rodent-control contractor to survey the area before construction, set out bait stations, and track activity so crews can add more bait wherever the rodents turn up. The agency framed it as getting ahead of the inevitable: deep excavation, especially for sewer work, disturbs rodents that are already living underground, pushing them into view in places neighbors don’t usually see them. The city’s dedicated rodent-mitigation office would only be looped in under extreme conditions, DDC said.

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The loudest worry in the room was about the businesses. Water shutdowns are part of the job, and DDC said it provides 72 hours’ notice ahead of a planned shutoff, with a 24-hour confirmation or cancellation, plus a weekly Friday look-ahead and quarterly updates. Committee members pushed for more — pointing out that restaurants, nail salons, and hair salons can’t operate without water, and that even a few hours of disruption can upend a day of reservations. They urged far more lead time and closer coordination, including on outdoor dining setups. DDC pointed to a dedicated community construction liaison who would canvass block by block and to test shutdowns meant to catch problems before they hit.

The timing of the conversation was notable: a day earlier, the City Council’s Small Business Committee had held a hearing on Int 799, a bill that would create a fund offering loans of up to $50,000 and grants of up to $15,000 per storefront to small businesses disrupted by city construction for 30 days or more.

Committee members also saw an opening. Because the street will already be torn up, several argued the city should seize the moment to add pedestrian-safety features — curb extensions, neck-downs, even raised crosswalks — while the pavement is open, rather than waiting for a separate project. The catch is that this is a DEP-driven job with only a thin slice of Department of Transportation scope, so DDC said it couldn’t commit, but would carry the request back. The committee signaled it would put the ask in writing to DOT.

For now, the work is still on paper. DDC said it expects to finalize its design later this year, then spend several months procuring a contractor before returning to the board closer to 2027 with construction details — and that residents will get advance notice well before the first jackhammer hits the street.

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