Crumbling Concrete Photos Spur Unfounded Panic In Washington Heights

WASHINGTON HEIGHTS, NY — Jeff Sellars snapped photos of crumbling concrete casings of Trans Manhattan Expressway pillars in Washington Heights because he feared the worst.

"I've been watching these pillars come apart for the past few years," Sellars wrote in a May 1 Facebook post that has since gone viral. "I no longer feel safe driving under that collapsing structure."

Sellars achieved the attention he wanted paid to the pillars — which support two 1-95 overpasses with high-rises built atop them — but there was just one other important detail.

According to the Port Authority, the pillars are fine.

"Port Authority is insisting the buildings are supported by steel beams and there is no structural concern," Council Member Carmen De La Rosa told her constituents Wednesday.

"They are replacing the concrete covering of the vertical beams and it is temporarily wrapped with a fireproof material which is what we see in the images. That will be removed then the new casing is put in place."

In response to Patch's request for comment, Port Authority confirmed to Patch what they told De La Rosa.

Port Authority's assurance did not come soon enough to prevent a panic among those who live near the stretch of I-95 that runs between 178th and 179th streets from Wadsworth to Audubon avenues.

The alarm raised by the viral post — which received more than 2,300 comments and was shared 16,000 times in four days — reached residents at 260 Audubon Ave., a towering high-rise building that stands on one of the overpasses.

"As a resident of the Bridge Apartments, this is alarming," one resident wrote on Twitter. "Not only for the thousands of people who live in the towers, but the everyday drivers who take this route everyday. Let's prevent a catastrophe!"

@ericadamsfornyc ARE YOU GOING TO DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT? pic.twitter.com/qHrgrdfxfy
— 𝕮𝖍𝖊𝖑𝖔🦦🇩🇴 (@humanerror35) May 4, 2022

The agency explained to De La Rosa that it is doing a state of good repair project to replace the "severely deteriorated median barriers with code-compliant concrete barriers" as part of the "Restore the George Project" launched in 2016.

The 10-year capital plan construction program is investing $1.9 billion to 11 projects surrounding the George Washington Bridge, including stretches of I-95.

The project to repair the pillars on the Trans Manhattan Expressway near West 181st Street does not have a completion date and was delayed to the COVID pandemic.

The Port Authority's explanation clicked with some residents, who took it as an opportunity to chastise neighbors over their misunderstanding of basic engineering concepts.

"People think the concrete is holding up those buildings," one commenter replied. "Of course, it is not."