It feels like just yesterday we were writing about how the city was hoping to turn the Fresh Kills dump in Staten Island into a a park three times the size of Central Park. And yet it was five years ago when the city first gave tours of the park to be (above). But despite those nifty bike racks we saw plans for last week it is going to be sometime more before we can go tiptoeing through the landfill-fed tulips on Staten Island. The opening of Owl Hollow Fields—the first segment of the parkification featuring 28 acres of soccer fields and other amenities meant to open in December—is likely to be delayed. Why? Because it is sinking.
Parks Department workers and the contracter in charge of the project currently believe that the sand laid out as foundation at the area has dropped by between eight inches and a foot since October 2009.
Though the city still thinks the fields are on track to be done by December the contractor in charge of them was far less optimistic. Donald Gangi of D. Gangi told the Post the fields are just barely 20% complete and will take another two years to finish. A Parks Department spokeswoman said the city "is working with the contractor to determine if sinking is occurring, and we will take the appropriate steps once the condition of the site is determined."
The segment was only priced at $6.8 million in 2006 but has already jumped to $14 million. $4.5 million of that was unavoidable. The city had been under the impression the area of the park had not been used for dumping previously and had to spend the dough to clean it up after the DEC found PCBs in the ground.
