Midtown Asbestos Leak Update: Cleaning Continues As Streets Reopen

MIDTOWN, NY — The cleanup from the massive steam release in East Midtown on Wednesday continues with some streets remaining closed while others have reopened.

Officials said that while asbestos has not been detected in the debris strewn into the air — and onto the streets, sidewalks and building facades — near the steam release on East 52nd Street and Second Avenue, much of the area has been closed off as a precaution and to allow Con Ed crews to clean.

On Friday, city officials said that Con Edison would begin their cleaning of the west side of Second Avenue between East 53rd to East 51st streets, closing the stretch to pedestrian traffic entirely.

Officials also said that East 53rd and 52nd streets between Second and Third avenues would remain closed to both pedestrian and vehicular traffic until Saturday morning.

Clean up operations on those streets will begin overnight.

The west side of Third Avenue has been cleaned, officials said, and the street has been fully reopened.

City Sanitation trucks have resumed making trash pickups on reopened streets.

At a press conference on Wednesday evening, Mayor Adams said that while the initial air testing results were negative for asbestos, emergency crews were still handing out N95 masks "out of an abundance of caution."

And while those initial tests have yet to confirm the presence of any asbestos, the massive effort to clean the streets and building facades in the area surrounding the huge steam leak has officials asking visitors to find another path.

"We recommend New Yorkers living in the area to wear masks and stay indoors while we complete the cleaning," Adams said Wednesday

"I know many residents in this area are anxious — anyone could be expected to be anxious seeing all this activity that's taking place," Adams added, saying that emergency crews from the city and ConEd responded "in a timely manner to get this under control."

"Every test that we have run so far, the preliminary results have been that it has been negative for asbestos in the air," said Zach Iscol, the city's emergency management commissioner, who also said that the light rain was helping with the cleanup.

ConEd said that crews onsite were still washing buildings and streets Thursday morning as they still investigated the cause of the massive steam release.

Officials said the cleanup efforts should take at least a few days.