Short ride
City unveils Sunset Park plan
featuring small bike lane
BY COLIN MIXSON
The city unveiled preliminary
designs for a $37 million
scheme to spruce up a stretch
of Sunset Park’s industrial waterfront
on April 8, showing
off plans that include repaved
roads, new trees, and one very
short bike lane before the civic
gurus of Community Board 7’s
Transportation Committee.
The infrastructure improvement
project, which is
being managed by the city’s
Economic Development Corporation,
features a two-way
protected bike lane planned
for 39th Street at Second Avenue
and extending past First
Avenue, stopping just shy of
the harbor.
The roughly block-long bike
lane — which will be installed
alongside an expanded sidewalk,
and separated from cars
by a line of trees — will not
link with any existing paths
for cyclists, although the plan
is to eventually connect it to
the Brooklyn Greenway Initiative
at an undetermined time,
according to Chieh Huang, a
landscape architect attached
to the project.
The bulk of the scheme will
consist of repaving roughly 10
blocks of often disconnected
roadways in an area bounded
by 39th Street to the north and
44th Street to the south, and
extending between First Avenue
to the west and Third Avenue
to the east, where the city
hopes to correct widespread
ponding issues caused by potholes
and other defi ciencies
in the industrial area’s wellworn
streetscape.
Drivers and cyclists will
also benefi t from the removal
of pesky, on-street railroad
tracks that run down Second
Avenue between 39th and 41st
streets, and down 41st Street
between Second and Third avenues,
according to project engineer
COURIER L 10 IFE, APRIL 19–25, 2019 PS
NOT LONG: The city plans on installing a roughly block-long bike lane. Economic Development Corporation
Thomas Colavecchio,
who noted that the rail lines
that run along First Avenue
— which remain in use under
the Port Authority’s jurisdiction
— will not be torn up as
Cobblestone roads will be
torn up and repaved along
39th Street between Second
Avenue and the waterfront,
and on 41st Street between
First and Second avenues, although
some board members
objected to the city’s plan to
eliminate the bumpy stretches
of stonework, arguing they’re
an integral part of the area’s
industrial character.
Board members also expressed
concern about a plan
to eliminate a turning lane on
Third Avenue heading west
onto 39th Street, where the
city plans on building out a
cobblestone plaza beneath an
exit ramp of the Gowanus Expressway
to make crossing
easier for pedestrians, saying
commercial trucks rely on that
lane to navigate their bulky vehicles
through the turn.
Colavecchio told the committee
that tests conducted by
city traffi c engineers showed
trucks will still be able to
make the turn, but a rep for
EDC, Radhy Miranda, agreed
to take a board member’s suggestion
to temporarily close
the lane for observation before
giving it the permanent
axe back to agency honchos
for approval.
Designs for the project are
expected to be fi nalized sometime
this summer and the estimated
18-month construction
project will kick off in the fall,
putting the project on track for
completion in spring 2021.
Ecologically friendly
Aesthetically pleasing
Get the garden you deserve!
part of the plan.
NativeNyGardens.com | NativeNyGardens@gmail.com
link
/NativeNyGardens.com
link