For Just A Little More Than 55 Cents A Day, You Too Could Make Thousands Of Commuters Late For Work

That billion-dollar development that has been cutting off lanes of traffic for months and months doesn’t really pay all that much for the luxury of doing so:

Even as Mayor Bloomberg seeks to reduce traffic in the city by charging drivers to use the most crowded thoroughfares, the city is issuing more than 200,000 permits a year to close traffic lanes and is charging developers as little as $50 for three months of road use, according to data provided by the Department of Transportation.

A citywide construction boom in the last few years has required many lanes to be closed for months and even years at a time. Closed streets are a nuisance to both drivers, who must endure increased traffic, and to local residents, who are often forced to navigate makeshift sidewalks.

In parts of Midtown Manhattan with the worst congestion, such as the area around Times Square, developers are charged no more to take over lanes than for construction sites in the outer reaches of Queens. The Durst Organization, which is erecting a $1 billion office tower for the Bank of America near Bryant Park, has for three years closed the south side of 43rd Street between Sixth Avenue and Broadway, the curb lane on Sixth Avenue near the park, and segments of three sidewalks. During off-peak hours, it has also taken over some traffic lanes on 42nd Street between Sixth Avenue and Broadway. These traffic lanes and sidewalks are likely to be closed through 2008, when the project is scheduled for completion.

The fees have not changed for decades, according to a spokesman for the transportation department. For the use of its roads, the city charges construction managers a $50 fee for new permits every three months to cover the expense of processing the applications, a transportation department spokesman said. For developers slicing open roadbeds to work beneath the street, the city charges $135 for a three-month permit. If the road has recently been resurfaced, the fee can climb to $380.

These lane-closure permits must be renewed after 90 days but can be renewed indefinitely. The city does not factor into these fees the higher cost of congestion when a bottleneck created by a lane closure on one block can slow traffic for miles.