You’re taking your life in your own hands when trying to enter Pier 1 of Brooklyn Bridge Park — and developers say it’ll be two more weeks before it’s safe.
Construction and upgrades at the entrance of the brand new Pier 1 public park at the foot of Old Fulton Street in Brooklyn Heights has cut off the main entrance to the greenspace, forcing pedestrians into Furman Street along with semi-truck, tour bus, and cars.
“This is terrible,” said Brooklyn Heights resident Teresa Warren, who walked alongside (and eventually dodged) a tour bus. “It’s absolutely unsafe here.”
Officials at the Empire State Development Corporation didn’t have an answer to the game of “Furman Street Frogger,” noting only that the work is “expected to be finished within two weeks.”
During the construction — which will apparently yield new benches and an improved entrance to the pier — we’ve documented semi-truck drivers slamming on their brakes in front of groups of tourists, elderly women and stroller-pushers dodging SUVs, and even pedestrians who have given up and left the area because they were unable to find the park’s entrance.
Some of the work in the past few weeks has been part of an unrelated Department of Transportation project on Furman Street, and Brooklyn Bridge Park officials told us that they had to wait until after that project to begin their work.
