It is a trip down memory lane.
The city is once again delaying its construction of the long-awaited new bike lanes on the Pulaski Bridge, this time due to unspecified issues with the design of the bridge’s drainage system, which it says means the path won’t be ready until spring next year.
Until then, pedal-pushers and pedestrians will have to continue sharing a single lane — a cramped arrangement that users say puts both parties at risk.
“Practically every time I ride over the bridge I almost hit somebody,” said Greenpoint cyclist Joel Richter, who regularly traverses the span. “There just isn’t enough room.”
The city was slated to begin building new bike-only paths on the Newtown Creek-spanning drawbridge in April — converting one Brooklyn-bound car lane into a two lanes for two-wheelers with concrete barriers on either side — and originally said it would have them ready to ride by the end of the year.
But the Department of Transportation says it has since encountered “drainage design issues” — though it refused to elaborate on what those issues are or why its engineers didn’t cross that particular bridge before they came to it — and now says commuters will have to wait.
The city has already stalled the new lanes multiple times. It first announced the project in 2013 and said it would wrap up construction by the end of 2014. But as that deadline zoomed by, the city announced it would not be finished until the end of 2015.
Transit activists say they appreciate that making changes to a drawbridge is tricky, but the numerous setbacks are a drag for Pulaski-traversers.
“While we understand the bridge presents some challenges, we are disappointed for all the riders who have had to wait for years on this project,” said Luke Ohlson, a spokes-man for bike-advocacy group Transportation Alternatives.
The Pulaski Bridge bike lane is one of several Greenpoint-to-Queens bridges in the midst of a bike-friendly makeover. The city debuted new bicycle lanes on the Greenpoint Avenue Bridge in July, while the state will add a bike lane to the new Kosciuszko Bridge, which it plans to open 2020.
