\u201cDelivering infrastructure for New Yorkers, the infrastructure that they deserve and expect, faster, is going to be my top priority at DDC,\u201d Ochoa told Streetsblog in an interview. \u201cI\u2019m looking forward to taking a deep dive on expanding the things that work and ending the ones that don\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n
Former Mayor Rudy Giuliani created DDC in 1996 to make infrastructure construction \u201cmore efficient and cost effective,\u201d<\/a> by consolidating capital divisions from several departments under one helm, but the agency has long<\/a> struggled<\/a> to quickly turn street redesigns from mere paint and plastic into hardened concrete buildouts.<\/p>\n DDC project timelines routinely span more than a decade, and easily run up $100-million tabs<\/a> to reconfigure just handful of blocks, because they often involve tearing up an entire street for sewer work (which the agency also manages).<\/p>\n \u201cIf you really want streets that are the envy of the world, this is the challenge,\u201d said Jon Orcutt, a former DOT director of policy under former mayors Michael Bloomberg\u00a0and Bill de Blasio, and a longtime transportation advocate.<\/p>\n \t\t\tRecommended<\/p>\n \t\t DDC\u2019s dysfunction prolonged the reconstruction of Pearl Street Plaza in Dumbo<\/a> for 17 years and the construction of a greenway on Flushing Avenue around the Brooklyn Navy Yard<\/a> for 11 years. Bloomberg-era pedestrianization projects at Herald and Madison Squares remain paint-based nearly two decades later.<\/p>\n These delays mean that costly revamps are already obsolete when they finally go online. Narrow bike paths around the Navy Yard are dangerously over-capacity<\/a>, and a proposed section of similarly tight cycling paths<\/a> in Greenpoint won\u2019t be finished until 2030.<\/p>\n So-called raised or mountable bike lanes<\/a> that DDC built in the Bronx, Brooklyn<\/a> and Queens<\/a> immediately proved ineffective, as they encouraged drivers \u2013 including NYPD cops \u2013 to park illegally on them.<\/p>\n Ochoa is familiar with the issues, having worked on the DOT side as the agency\u2019s executive deputy commissioner since 2022, overseeing a\u00a0$1.5-billion\u00a0expense budget\u00a0and\u00a0a\u00a0$34-billion\u00a010-year capital plan.<\/p>\n DOT\u2019s so-called street improvement projects, or SIPs \u2013 which feature paint, plastic and sometimes planters or boulders \u2014 are intended to transition into harder infrastructure, not deteriorate indefinitely.<\/p>\n \u201cThe works that we do in-house \u2026 they tend to be temporary in nature,\u201d Ochoa said. \u201cThe elements that we use to build them are not meant to last decade.\u201d<\/p>\n Ochoa said he wants to more quickly move into concrete work if a DOT project works well, and rely on \u201calternative delivery methods,\u201d like design-build, meaning the agency combines designing and construction in one contract to save time and money.<\/p>\n \u201cWe don\u2019t have to wait for years for a SIP to know whether or not it\u2019s successful,\u201d he said. \u201cWe will know in a season or two, and then move forward for a full reconstruction capital project.\u201d He cited DDC\u2019s recently completed Shirley Chisholm Recreation Center as a good example, which the city built in a relatively short three years<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cI think DDC has done a really good job at implementing design-build and other alternative delivery methods for vertical projects,\u201d he said. \u201cI don\u2019t think they\u2019ve done enough for these alternative delivery methods for horizontal projects, so street reconstruction, sewer work.\u201d<\/p>\n The state should give the city more leeway to jointly bid capital work and utility relocation at the same time, which currently requires reauthorization in Albany<\/a> on a yearly basis.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s nothing that drives me more crazy than going through a street that was just repaved or just redone, and then there\u2019s a utility cut,\u201d Ochoa said. <\/p>\n
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