Free Williamsburg

It’s been over two months since the ferry platform at India Street collapsed and riders are becoming impatient:

The gangway’s status is noted on the East River Ferry website, though no updates have been made since February 19. Preliminary investigation revealed that two “spud piles” that held the barge in position had failed, resulting in the barge drifting to the west and the ramp’s subsequent collapse. It goes on to say that “We have been advised by the pier owner that additional dive teams are going to be sent to the site to remove the piles for further examination in order to assess the cause of their failure. The retrieval of those piles and the determination of the cause of their failure are required before the facility can be restored to service.”

Daily News explains that the hold-up is due in part to financing the expense of a crane required to complete the investigation:

The city is “aggressively” working with RedSky Capital to finish an investigation and get ferry service back online, a New York City Economic Development Corp. spokesman said.“We are optimistic that a strengthened ferry landing will welcome back service in the near future,” an agency spokesman said.

RedSky co-founder Benjamin Stokes didn’t respond to requests for comment, but a city official briefed on the issue said the developer is fighting demands to hire a crane to complete the investigation. The operation would require the use of a crane for the investigation, and again during the repair work. The city wants to determine what went wrong before the repairs will be authorized. RedSky’s principals only want to hire the crane once, officials said.

Despite his history of green-lighting unpopular projects that will exacerbate Greenpoint’s already-limited access to public transit, Councilman Stephen Levin voiced outrage at the lack of action:

“Them balking because they didn’t want to spend some extra money getting a crane out to do the investigation is outrageous,” said Councilman Stephen Levin (D-Greenpoint). “There has to be answers as to why this happened,” he added. “Because somebody really could have died.”

Regardless, Greenpoint is about to get screwed. Starting July 26 and continuing to September 1, the G train will not run between Nassau and Court Square. Get ready to suffer Greenpointers during summer’s sweatiest time of year.