Bridges

The Port Authority announced plans yesterday to add some breathing room for biking and walking around the towers on the George Washington Bridge. Currently the paths narrow and jog around the towers at tight angles -- the new "wedges" will make for a more comfortable ride.

On Thursday, the Port Authority board will vote on the agency's $32 billion, 10-year capital plan -- which currently does not include widening the walking and biking paths on the GW Bridge. The paths are much narrower than engineering standards recommend, and with cycling numbers increasing at a rapid clip, the space crunch will only get worse.

How much will it cost to build bicycle and pedestrian paths on the Verrazano Bridge? A lot less than the MTA says it will, if the agency removes unnecessary ramps from the project, according to advocates and engineers who've reviewed the options.

Later this year, the MTA will release a master plan for the Verrazano Bridge that's expected to include the possibility of a bike and pedestrian path, but advocates worry the agency is needlessly driving up the cost of the project.

People who bike over the Queensboro Bridge had to endure months without nighttime access to the bridge's car-free path earlier this year, with ConEd infrastructure work closing off the north outer roadway. Now, after a short respite, ConEd work has resumed, and nightly closures are slated to last "through the end of the year," according to DOT's Facebook page for the bridge.

With crowding on the Brooklyn Bridge walking and biking path in a state of near constant low-level emergency, this week NYC DOT announced a feasibility study of widening the bridge’s promenade. A path with sufficient space for the thousands of commuters, exercisers, and tourists who walk and bike across the bridge each day would be an immensely valuable improvement. But what if the same benefits could be derived at less cost by claiming space on the Brooklyn Bridge roadway?

An expansion of the Brooklyn Bridge walking and biking path could get underway by 2019 if it's folded into a rehab project that's already in the pipeline, DOT Commissioner Polly Trottenberg said this afternoon.

The days of pedestrians and cyclists fighting for scraps of space on the Brooklyn Bridge may be numbered.

Next year, the Port Authority will begin a seven-year, $1.03 billion renovation of the suspension cables on the George Washington Bridge [PDF]. Announced in March 2014, the project includes new ramps to the bridge’s bike and pedestrian paths, eliminating stairs and a hairpin turn. But it won't widen a bike path that is already too small for the amount of cycling traffic it receives.