Clinton Hill's Putnam Plaza $3.75M Revamp Will Finish This Month

CLINTON HILL, BROOKLYN — A $3.75 million upgrade to the pedestrian plaza on Putnam Avenue is scheduled to be done this month after delays pushed back the completion date, the city announced.

The city's Department of Design and Construction said in its newsletter last week that the Putnam Plaza project had stalled past its originally-scheduled end date in June and would likely be done sometime in July instead. That will mean a few more weeks of construction for the residents and businesses around the Putnam Avenue pedestrian space.

(NYC DOT Presentation)

The delays, the DDC said, were due in part to a permitting issue that happened at the start of the project last summer. That issue was resolved by September, but the contractors quickly went on a construction hiatus for the winter about two months later.

Construction ramped back up in the spring and the contractor worked extra hours each shift to try and make up for the lost time, DDC said. But, excessive rain in May and June pushed the completion date further anyway.

The project is meant to improve the plaza, which originally was put in in 2011 by pedestrianizing a triangle of Putnam Avenue from Grand Avenue to Fulton Street.

Back in 2015 when the city proposed upgrading the space, they told community members that Putnam Plaza had already improved safety in the area. Crashed were down by 12 percent and total injuries — both for pedestrians or from car crashes — were down 76 percent since the Plaza was put in.

But, residents were still concerned with ongoing drug activity in the space and wanted more shade and seating.

The improvement project will add more lighting, twice the number of plants and reconfigure traffic configuration for better sight lines and safety around the open space. It will also include water main upgrades and improved sidewalks and curbs.

So far, contractors have completed the electrical work, shallow drainage work and have put in granite curbs for planters. For the next few weeks, they will continue curb, sidewalk and roadway work while adding plaza furniture and finishing the plaza concrete, the update said.