City contractors hired to replace a crumbling, century-old elevated stretch of Riverside Drive West in Washington Heights walked off the job last year, leaving behind an unfinished construction site and hundreds of residents stuck in a public works purgatory.

The work began in late 2019, when the city transportation department hired the company Judlau for $101 million to replace corroding steel and decking along the Riverside Drive Viaduct, which towers above the West Side Highway between 153rd And 161st streets. The roadway, which was built in 1928 and last saw major repairs in 1985, had “limited remaining life,” city engineers said at the time.

The job was scheduled to take three years. But last year — when roughly three-quarters of the work was completed — the contractors abruptly aba

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