Squibb’s second act
Multi-million-dollar bridge to Bridge Park
will be replaced after just fi ve years in use
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NOT COMING BACK: The Squibb Bridge during one of the roughly 32 months it was open to
the public since it debuted in 2013. File photo by Jordan Rathkopf
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COURIER L 26 IFE, DEC. 14–20, 2018 M B G
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BY JULIANNE CUBA
Brooklyn Bridge Park bigwigs are
shelling out millions of dollars to build
an entirely new span in place of the
beleaguered Squibb Bridge, which zig
zags from its namesake park in Brooklyn
Heights down to the waterfront
lawn below, and for the second time
closed due to structural problems back
in July.
“We have announced plans to fully
replace Squibb Bridge,” Eric Landau,
president of the semi-private Brooklyn
Bridge Park Corporation, which
oversees the green space, said at a Dec.
5 corporation board meeting. “There
is certainly a long history with this
bridge.”
Weeks after its recent closure ,
Landau in September told locals that
the original span funded by some $4
million in taxpayer dollars — which
opened in 2013 , closed the next year
for a roughly $3-million repair, and reopened
in April 2017 before shuttering
again this year — would be off limits
indefi nitely, because what park leaders
thought was just a single faulty
piece of wood turned out to be one of
several planks decaying due to “higher
than expected moisture levels,” even
though one of the bridge’s main materials,
black locust, is supposed to withstand
heavy moisture.
Engineering fi rm Arup Group, the
company that completed the bridge’s
fi rst repair after it closed in 2014, surveyed
the span after it shuttered this
year. That study ultimately resulted in
two options for Brooklyn Bridge Park
keepers: repair the crossing for a second
time, or build a new overpass from
scratch, Landau said. And meadow
stewards chose the latter, but decided
to use steel and aluminum for the
Squibb’s second coming, instead of its
original wood.
“Based on a variety of factors that
is the decision we made,” he said.
The new span will be built by Manhattan–
based company Turner Construction,
take roughly 18 months to
complete from the start of the design
process through construction, and
cost the park $6.5 million — $2.5 million
more than repairing the current
bridge would have cost, according to
Landau, whose rep said the cash to
construct the new crossing will come
from funds generated by development
projects and concession sales in the
green space.
But the extra dough is worth the in-
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