Pedestrians Who Cross West Street Will Get a Lift

by Etta Sanders

Crossing West Street is about to get easier. The Vesey Street pedestrian bridge is being outfitted with escalators and elevators. An escalator on the bridge's west side was scheduled to begin running on Friday April 16 and the east side escalator should be working by mid-June. Elevators at either end of the bridge will be running in early summer, according to the New York State Department of Transportation (NYSDOT).

Pedestrian traffic has grown since the resumption of the PATH train service on Nov. 23 2003, with as many as 1,700 people crossing the Vesey St. bridge at peak afternoon times. As construction work gets underway on the World Trade Center site and route 9A (West St.), it will be increasingly important to make crossing from east to west easier and safer, said Richard Schmalz, Route 9A project director for the NYSDOT in a presentation to the Battery Park City Committee of CB1. "We could be talking about 100 construction vehicles a day," he said.

The $15 million project is funded through the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation (LMDC).

Board members reacted positively, but expressed concerns that there will be just one escalator on each side of the bridge. The plan is for the east side escalator to go up in the early part of the day and down on the west side. Those directions will be reversed later in the day. That flow is too geared to workers rather than residents, several board members said.

"When people shop at Century 21, they have to go both ways," said board member Barry Skolnick, a persistent critic of the bridge elevators on West Street. But at a cost of almost $1 million apiece, adding more escalators is not an option, Schmalz said. One solution may be to have both escalators go up on weekends to provide assistance to shoppers with packages.

Board members were also assured by the DOT that the elevators would not have the frequent malfunctions of the lifts at the Liberty Street bridge. This elevator, Schmalz assured the committee, is of the "highest quality." And because the elevators will be heated in winter and cooled in summer, he said, they will be less vulnerable in inclement weather.

"These elevators are much more robust," he said.

Safe passage through the construction traffic for disabled pedestrians and people with strollers will be maintained by a walkway on Vesey Street near Washington Street Locked gates will block construction vehicles and be staffed by flagmen who will let the vehicles through only when no pedestrians are crossing, Schmalz said.

The Vesey Street elevators will also be accessible to everyone, he said, in response to complaints that security guards at the Liberty Street bridge turn away people with strollers or those they deem not sufficiently in need. Bicycles should also fit in the elevators. Guards will be on site for security purposes only.

Still to be determined is whether West Street will be closed to street-level crossing at Vesey Street during the peak construction times.