At Vesey Street, a new Pedestrian Bridge and Path Are Coming

by Ronald Drenger

Pedestrians crossing West Street and negotiating their way along the north side of the World Trade Center site should find their wanderings easier by the end of this year.

A new Vesey Street pedestrian bridge and an upgraded, covered path connecting the bridge to Church Street should be ready when the temporary PATH opens around the end of November, officials from the State Department of Transportation (DOT) and the Port Authority said as they presented detailed project plans to Community Board 1’s WTC Redevelopment Committee on June 9.

A rendering of the planned pedestrian bridge over West Street at Vesey Street (above), which is scheduled to be completed in time for the opening of the temporary PATH station at the World Trade Center site in November. The 250-foot-long span will cross West Street at a slight angle (below), connecting the southwest corner of Vesey and West streets to the northeast corner. Images courtesy of New York State Department of Transportation/Earthtech.

Plans for the temporary pedestrian bridge had previously been announced by state and city officials, but at the meeting the Transportation Department unveiled a design and site plan for the project. The 250-foot-long bridge will cross from the southwest corner of Vesey and West Streets, in front of Three World Financial Center, to the northeast corner, in front of the Verizon Building.

The bridge is expected to remain for about five years, until the reconstruction of West Street (see “State Officials Present West Street Plans”) is complete, DOT officials said.

The path is most likely going to be within a new elevated structure running along Vesey Street from the bridge and then ramping down to street level in front of the new PATH station entrance on Church Street, said Peter Rinaldi, general manager for World Trade Center site projects for the Port Authority.

A new, wider pedestrian path from West Street to Church Street will most likely be elevated, to keep walkers out of the way of construction work, and would descend by ramp to the PATH station’s entrance.. Image courtesy of Port Authority of NY &NJ.

The Port Authority is considering keeping the path at street level—thought it would still get a roof and other improvements—but an elevated passageway would more effectively separate pedestrians from construction crews at the main Trade Center site and at 7 World Trade, keeping them out of each other’s way, Rinaldi said. Street-level pedestrians would also have to contend with a new wave of truck traffic going to and from the post office building at 90 Church Street, which Rinaldi said is expected to reopen next April.

The path will be 20 feet wide, compared to the “woefully inadequate” 7-foot-wide path that exists now, Rinaldi said. Whether the new path is elevated or not, “it would be a tremendous improvement over what is there today,” he added.

The bridge and path projects are intended to ease access for World Financial Center workers who will resume arriving by PATH and for Battery Park City residents entering and leaving their neighborhood. When the temporary PATH station reopens, it is expected that 1500 to 4500 people an hour will cross the bridge, with that number rising to 6500 as redevelopment moves forward over the next several years, said Richard Schmalz, director of West Street reconstruction and Lower Manhattan redevelopment at DOT.

Construction on the projects is expected to begin next month.

The bridge will be similar to the Rector Street bridge, protected from rain and wind though not fully enclosed. But it will be brighter and more open, according to Heather Sporn, DOT’s deputy director for Lower Manhattan redevelopment.

It will not actually enter Three World Financial Center, as the North Bridge connected directly to the Winter Garden before it was destroyed on Sept. 11. There will be stairs, an elevator and eventually an escalator from the sidewalks on Vesey and West streets outside the World Financial Center to the bridge.

On the east side, there will be an elevator and stairs down to West Street, at the place where the bridge is expected to connect to the elevated Vesey Street walkway. And there would be a couple of points along the walkway between West and Church streets where people could descend to the street by stairs.

But the elevators will not be ready until the spring, Schmalz said.

Several Battery Park City residents at the meeting said they were concerned that the elevators won’t work anyway, based on their experiences with the chronically broken elevators at the other pedestrian bridges over West Street, including the one at Rector Street that the Transportation Department built in the spring of 2002.

“I don’t trust any of them,” said Betty Heller, who lives in Battery Park City’s north neighborhood. “They’ve been so unreliable.”

“We want to do much better than we did with the elevators on the previous bridges,” responded Schmalz. He said that the Transportation Department was working out a contract with Brookfield Properties, the World Financial Center’s owner, for the company to maintain the bridge.

The pedestrian walkway along Liberty Street, on the south side of the World Trade Center site, will also be upgraded, DOT officials said, but those plans are not ready yet