The wheels are in motion!
The city is finally constructing the long-awaited dedicated bike lane on the Pulaski Bridge after years of delays, and cycling fans say they can now see a future where they no longer have to dodge pedestrians on the span’s shared pathway somewhere on the horizon.
“It’s great we’re closer to being finished,” said Caroline Samponaro, deputy director of bike advocacy group Transportation Alternatives. “It means we’ll have more and better space for pedestrians and bikes crossing the bridge.”
The Department of Transportation announced the impending construction at the beginning of September — but it also broadcast similar plans in March, only to put the brakes on the project when it encountered unforeseen design problems. And that was only after more than a year of unexplained delays.
But now construction is actually underway — workers commenced building the two-way two-wheeler path on Sept. 14, and the concrete barrier that will separate the new lane from traffic lanes is already taking shape over the Greenpoint-to-Queens connection. Once all the railing segments are in place, contractors will next cement them all together.
The department still refuses to provide more than a ballpark completion date for the long-awaited lane, however — in September it told this paper it would wrap up by spring 2016, and did not return requests for an update this week.
But Samponaro remains optimistic about the project’s progress.
“The message has been loud and clear that we should get this done as quickly as we can, and I have no doubt the city is trying to do that,” she said.
Lane lovers can keep a-bridged of the construction on the Department of Transportation’s Pulaski Bridge Facebook page, where it is documenting its progress in great detail.
