Flyover bridge for East Side greenway still has wings — but completion date up in the air

BY OTTO FRITTON | There obviously has been, and still is, a lot of disagreement — and hard feelings — over the East Side Coastal Resiliency project. At a staggering cost of $1.45 billion, the contentious scheme is razing East River Park, including its lofty 80-year-old London plane trees. The plan is then to rebuild the park at a higher elevation, hopefully preventing the coastal flooding seen during Hurricane Sandy in 2012.

A positive community perk included in the plan is to build a so-called flyover bridge to widen a bottleneck on the East Side greenway where it passes the Con Edison East River Generation Station at E. 14th Street. The bridge would span over part of the F.D.R. Drive from E. 13th Street to E. 15th Street, connecting East River Park to the south with Captain Patrick J. Brown Walk to the north.

The proposal for this project originally came as welcome news to cyclists, joggers and walkers alike when it was first floated a number of years ago during the E.S.C.R. planning stages. Currently, the pathway narrows sharply in this section. The tightest stretch measures just 4 feet wide, making it tricky for bikers and cyclists to navigate while passing two abroad. Sometimes runners and bikers alike will stop and then slowly shuffle by each other here. In addition to the ever-present possibility of collisions between users, the pathway here is also pockmarked by potholes, raising the risk of cyclist spills and runner ankle twists.

According to Bill Di Paola, an avid New York City cyclist and the founder of the environmental organization Time’s Up!, enhancements to the greenway are sorely needed and should have already been done.

“It’s long overdue,” he said. “The East Side greenway needs to be continuous and wide enough to support people’s safety. The West Side greenway has been working for close to 20 years now, and it’s amazing that it is taking so much time to complete this simple project.”

Asked about the flyover bridge’s status, Ian Michaels, a spokesperson for the Department of Design and Construction, said the work, in fact, has been funded, though currently there still is no completion date for it. According to E.S.C.R. documents, the bridge’s cost was initially pegged at $151.5 million.

“The flyover bridge at 14th Street is funded and is happening,” Michaels assured. “The footings for the bridge are being built as part of E.S.C.R. but then the bridge will be a separate project.”

The full E.S.C.R. mega-project stretches from Montgomery Street on the Lower East Side up to E. 25th Street behind Stuyvesant Town. At its northern end, it includes massive, movable floodgates. At various spots along the project’s length, the capacity of storm drains and sewers is also being increased, again to prevent flooding.

“The area north of 15th Street is due to be completed by the end of the year,” Michaels said. “It could be sooner but right now we’re projecting end of 2024, which was the schedule when work began, so we’re happy about that. Of course the entire [flood-protection] system has to be completed before it will work, and construction south of 15th Street is [going to extend] to the end of 2026.

“The work you see taking place at the north end of Stuy Cove Park [just south of 23rd Street],” he added, “is Solar Two being built by the New York City Economic Development Corporation (E.D.C.). It’s not a D.D.C. project.”