quote:

Originally posted by Terry Ishmael:
tarbabies in RH?

quote:

Originally posted by Sunil:
J Line Is Dripping Tar
04/10/2008

(Lee Landor)


Shopkeepers and residents of Jamaica Avenue in Richmond Hill have had enough of what they call poor excuses from New York City Transit, a branch of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

The agency has done nothing to stop the elevated subway tracks carrying the J line along Jamaica Avenue from dripping tar onto cars and people below, according to Richmond Hill Block Association President Simcha Waisman.


The warm, sticky and thick creosote — a toxic coal tar derivative NYCT uses to preserve the wooden tracks — has stained clothes and severely damaged cars, Waisman said. His own car, parked outside the RHBA office at 110-08 Jamaica Ave., has incurred serious damage, he said. Waisman is also concerned the creosote could harm children walking home from close-by schools by causing minor burns on the skin.

The substance drips more frequently during the summer, Waisman noted: large clumps of the black tar consume cars in just minutes. The leaking began early this year, in March, and Waisman expects that nothing will be done to resolve the issue. To no avail, last year NYCT placed sleeves over some of the wooden tracks to catch the leaking substance. “It didn’t change anything,” Waisman said.

An NYCT spokesman said track workers began work on the wooden tracks Tuesday at the Jamaica Avenue and 109th Street intersection. They are going to remove timber, he said, and place more sleeves made of an oil-absorbent material. The work should take a week to complete, the spokesman said. Further inspections are excepted to occur frequently.

—Lee Landor

http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=19473140&BRD=...dept_id=574908&rfi=6