Bad vibrations: Homeowners hit PA for low offers to repair damage from LaG rehab
LaGuardia Airport neighbors say they’ve suffered vibration damage to their homes in the airport’s $8 billion rebuild — and that the Port Authority isn’t offering enough money to cover their repair costs.
“The house was shaking all day long,” said Julio Diaz of the pile-driving work done in 2019 as workers built the airport’s shiny new terminals and access roads across the Grand Central Parkway from his East Elmhurst, Queens, home.
The vibrations created lengthy cracks along Diaz’s walls and tiles, causing water to leak from his first floor ceiling, he said. He also says cracks in the foundation of his home may cost $100,000 to fix.
Diaz got independent estimates for the repairs — and says the $8,000 check the Port Authority offered to fix his home doesn’t come close to covering his costs.
On top of that, the Port Authority demanded he sign a nondisclosure agreement before it would agree to a settlement.
“I tell them, until we settle for the right amount of money, I’m not going to, you know?” recounted Diaz, 59, a building supervisor at a commercial cleaning company.
“These people come and they play with you. And I tell them, I know what I’m doing because I do construction.”
Major construction at the airport — the replacement or overhaul of each of its terminals — is not expected to finish until the end of 2022, Port Authority officials said. More work inside the terminals and concourses is scheduled to continue into 2026.
Diaz fears the damage to his home will continue — and he’s not the only one.
Patrick Saint Jean, who owns a home on the same block as Diaz, was also offered a settlement, but said he refused to agree to the Port Authority’s terms because he feared it would hamper his ability to file claims for future repair costs.
“I got an estimate, gave it to them and they came back with an offer,” said Saint Jean. “It was too low. I told them it’s too low. Then they went back. They made another offer, but it’s still too low. So, the damage that they cause is much more than what they give.”
East Elmhurst residents say the checks the Port Authority has offered to fix the damage range from $4,000 to $17,000.
The Port Authority has sought to be a “good neighbor” throughout the construction work, said spokesman Thomas Topousis.
“We proactively reached out to the community to offer homeowners compensation for damage that may have been caused by airport construction,” Topousis said.
There is “no confirmed evidence” that airport construction caused any damage to homes, Topousis said. The payments were offered to homeowners as part of a “good neighbor policy and out of an abundance of caution,” he said.
The Port Authority declines to say how much money it has paid East Elmhurst homeowners so far.
But LaGuardia neighbors have been told in meetings and emails that they can report claims of construction-related damage to the Port Authority, which will send out engineers to determine if repairs are needed.
Topousis said that if the Port Authority assessment was different than that of an independent engineer hired by a homeowner, then the agency “worked to reach an agreement.”
But some homeowners have been unable to hire an independent engineer because of financial constraints, said James Carriero, a lawyer for the Ditmars Boulevard Block Association.
Carriero said he pressed the Port Authority to hire an independent engineer to assess the cost of alleged damages and an independent mediator to resolve any disputes, but that he did not receive any response from the agency.
“Port Authority, of course, would rather divide and conquer and battle each homeowner,” he said. “They have to take what Port Authority offers, not what the real damage is.”