Construction Narrows Brooklyn Bridge Bike-Ped Path

Narrow.JPGDuring the Brooklyn Bridge rehab, stretches of the 14-foot-wide bike-ped path will be narrowed to 11 feet. Photo: Noah Kazis

Heads up if you bike or walk across the Brooklyn Bridge: Rehab work slated to last until 2014 is narrowing the promenade from 14 feet to 11 feet.

Right now, paint removal work has narrowed part of the bike path by a foot and a half. A similar "paint removal containment unit" will soon be installed on the pedestrian side. The narrowed section of the path, which will fluctuate between 600 and 1000 feet long, will shift as the paint removal work moves along the bridge. DOT has already installed signs telling cyclists to dismount.

For what it’s worth, none of the cyclists I saw on the bridge dismounted and everything seemed to work fine. But that wasn’t during peak commute hours, and the other side of the path hadn’t been narrowed yet. It may be worth going even more out of your way to take the Manhattan Bridge, but that route will have its own construction headaches starting at the end of this year. 

If you have any suggestions for the Brooklyn Bridge construction managers about how to make the best of a tight space that’s about to get even more cramped, email brooklynbridgeoutreach@gmail.com.

Dismount_1.JPGDismount signs are up in both directions. Photo: Noah Kazis

ALSO ON STREETSBLOG

Council Members Propose Widening Brooklyn Bridge Bike-Ped Path

By Alex Rothberg |
Council Members Brad Lander, Margaret Chin, and Stephen Levin — along with advocates from Transportation Alternatives — stood at the Manhattan entrance to the Brooklyn Bridge this morning and put forth a proposal to expand the bridge’s increasingly popular and exceedingly cramped bike and pedestrian path. “It’s about time, in 2012, that we update it […]

Greenpoint Ave Bridge Plan Adds Bike Lanes With Fat Buffers

By Noah Kazis |
The proposed redesign for the Greenpoint Avenue Bridge, which connects Brooklyn and Queens. Image: NYCDOT Here’s a look at NYCDOT’s plan for the Greenpoint Avenue Bridge [PDF], which would give cyclists traveling between Greenpoint, Brooklyn and Sunnyside, Queens a safer and more comfortable ride by installing bike lanes with extra-wide buffers. The project recently got […]

DUMBO Street Upgrades: Big Curb Expansions + Contraflow Bike Lane

By Stephen Miller |
DUMBO, where NYC DOT launched its public plaza program more than seven years ago, is set to get more pedestrian space as the city expands sidewalks and reworks oddly-shaped intersections beneath the Manhattan Bridge. The project also includes a contraflow bike lane to improve connections from DUMBO to the Manhattan Bridge, Jay Street, and Downtown […]