A heavily traversed Bay Ridge street is getting a $350,000 facelift in an effort by city transit gurus to improve the exit off of the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge, and give neighbors something a bit nicer to look at.
“It’s green space, and neighbors want it to look nice and enjoy it,” said Josephine Beckmann, district manager of Community Board 10, which encompasses Bay Ridge and Dyker Heights. “So the TBTA listened to the community, heard it, and was able to fit in this improvement project.”
The Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority, a self-explanatory subsidiary of the MTA, said the work at Dahlgren Place, just off the Brooklyn-Staten Island connector, is meant to restore the landscape along the road and get the exit in a state of good repair.
“TBTA is a neighbor and they have a stretch of landscaping, and as is with all places in New York City, sometimes the weed grows too tall, or there’s trash,” Beckmann said. “The landscaping improvement to the average person may seem like a small deal, but to the residents of Dahlgren Place it is something they have advocated for a long time.”
The street adjacent to the bridge connecting the borough to Staten Island will see tree trimming of the overgrowth and planting, painting of the cement wall adjacent to the street, landscape maintenance, fence replacement and sidewalk restoration.
“They are going to remove the poison ivy, some of the trees that are compromised, pruning those and removing those that are unsalvageable. They are really going to give the area a sprucing up,” Beckmann told Brooklyn Paper. “And they are going to replace the chain-link fence so that will widen the sidewalk.”
Field work for the project is planned to begin at the start of May and is scheduled for completion in the late fall.
There will be a period of three weeks where 15 parking spaces will be temporarily restricted due to the sidewalk expansion, which a representative from the sub-agency said a contractor will post the appropriate signage to inform residents of.
The district manager told Brooklyn Paper that a group of neighbors in that area have been advocating for this restoration project for a long time and are relieved to hear it is coming to fruition.
“For the average driver or pedestrian that walks by, you know it’s there, but when you live there and it’s on your street, it’s part of your walk and part of your day-to-day streetscape,” Beckmann said. “I know already the residents are very happy about it.”
