Crossing West Street is getting a good bit easier.

The Vesey Street pedestrian bridge is being outfitted with escalators and elevators, with an escalator on the bridge's west side up and running last month and the east side escalator expected to be working by mid-June. Elevators at either end of the bridge will be running in early summer, according to the state Department of Transportation (DOT).

		Pedestrian traffic has grown since the resumption of PATH train service on Nov. 23, 2003, with as many as 1,700 people crossing the Vesey Street bridge at peak afternoon times. As construction work gets underway on the World Trade Center site and Route 9A (West Street), it will be increasingly important to make crossing the highway easier and safer, said Richard Schmalz, Route 9A project director for the state DOT, in a presentation to Community Board 1's Battery Park City Committee. "We could be talking about 100 construction vehicles a day," he said. The $15 million project is funded through the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation. Community 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 escalators
"When people shop at Century 21, they have to go both ways," said board member Barry Skolnick, a persistent critic of the elevators on the West Street bridges. But at a cost of almost $1 million apiece, more escalators are not an option, Schmalz said. The DOT assured board members that the elevators will not suffer from the frequent malfunctions that have plagued the lifts at the Liberty Street bridge. "These elevators are much more robust" and would not be affected by adverse weather," Schmalz said. The Vesey Street elevators will also be accessible to everyone, he said, responding to complaints that 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 only.