Fitness Amenities Part of New West Street Promenade by Barry Owens Work has begun on the South Promenade, a New York State Department of Transportation project that will turn a traffic island on lower West Street into a tree-lined pedestrian pathway. Contractors began paving work last month on the $70 million Route 9A project that will narrow West Street's wide traffic lanes to create broader sidewalks at each curb and a green path down the middle. When it is complete in 2006, pedestrians will find an oasis in the middle of a state highway that will stretch from Battery Park to West Thames Street. It will be lined with park benches, Bradford Pear trees and punctuated with modest open spaces and plazas. What pedestrians won't find are the tennis and basketball courts that some in the neighborhood had hoped for. During a presentation of the project to the Battery Park City Committee of Community Board 1 on Feb. 1, Lauren Loscialo, a project manager with Vollmer Associates, a landscape consulting group hired by the DOT, explained why. "Those spaces could fit in here," she said, overlaying graphics of tennis, handball and basketball courts onto a digital rendering of the plan," However, the promenade would be nonfunctional." The graphics blotted out the trees at both sides and left little room for benches or even a sidewalk. At its widest, the promenade is 35 feet, making all but the least intrusive recreation equipment practical, Loscialo said. She added that tennis and basketball courts could be incorporated into later phases of the promenade as there are plans to eventually extend the path to the World Trade Center site. For now, the plan calls for installing modest, sculptural exercise equipment at each of the plaza areas that correspond with the street intersections along the route. At First Place, a sculptural garden of shaped metal beams that double as fitness equipment for stretching, jumping and balance exercises. At Second Place, a small amphitheater and arbor in the center with boulder-like balls of rounded concrete outside the circle for exercise, such as yoga and sit-ups, and play for toddlers. At Third Place, a boulder garden of randomly sized and shaped stones for stepping and climbing. Each of the exercise stations will feature posted instructions and suggestions for using the equipment. The plan also calls for a 100-square-foot lawn between Third Place and West Thames. The exercise stations were a compromise for Community Board 1, particularly for Battery Park City members who had hopes that the promenade would serve more than tourists by including ample space for active recreation. Nearly all on the committee were pleased, however, that the community was being served with the exercise stations. The plan was approved by a 9-1 vote, with the lone dissent coming from Tom Goodkind, a vocal proponent of active recreation space on the promenade. "These stations may be a good idea, but I think it is stretch," he said. "We asked for active recreation space, not little exercise stations." "I normally would agree that exercise stations don't work," said Heather Sporn, a deputy director of the project with the DOT, "but every morning I see people in Battery Park City exercising and stretching. I think it will be used."