In late February, the New York City Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) has plans to tear up seven miles of roadway from the north to the south Bronx.

During construction, the DEP will install an underground force main, a pipe six inches in diameter, from the future site of the Croton Water Filtration Plant in Van Cortlandt Park to the Hunts Point Wastewater Treatment Plant. According to a DEP press release, the pipe will carry “inert, sandy by-products” from the filtration plant to Hunts Point for disposal. The scheduled completion date is March 2011.

Angel Roman, a DEP spokesman, said the agency plans to install the force main block-by-block “in an orderly and speedy fashion” starting at Van Cortlandt Park. The contractor has not yet approved the pipe’s route through the Bronx, but according to one published DEP map, the pipe will travel along Bainbridge Avenue, East 204th Street and Webster Avenue.

The force main construction will cause “some limited impact on the community,” Roman said.

During construction on one-way streets, at least one traffic lane will remain open to the public. On two-way streets, a traffic lane will remain open in each direction, Roman said, adding that while construction should not affect the sidewalk, it will prevent parking on narrow streets.

As for noise concerns, “There will be mufflers as well as noise reduction equipment pursuant to New York City noise code and DEP will be monitoring that closely to ensure that,” Roman said. Construction will mostly take place from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., but at some intersections it will occur at night.

The prospect of daily construction work does not excite local stores along the planned route. Gil Nunez, the manager of NHS Hardware on Bainbridge Avenue said, “We have a lot of competition and now [the DEP] made it harder for customers to get here.”

“People that come here need to park,” said Anna Alicea, the owner of Hair Shoppe, also on Bainbridge. “It is already hard for the elderly to get here. I get a lot of elderly customers.”

The combination of the havoc wrought by three recent fires on the merchant strip (see cover story) and the future construction “affects traffic and business at the same time,” said Fouad Ahmed, the owner of Green Valley Gourmet Deli on Bainbridge.

“We are going to have to take all the consequences. [But] we always have to hope for the best.”