End in Sight for Bikeway/Walkway West St. Detour

Here at Vesey and West Streets is where the bikeway/walkway ends, going south. The path is expected to be completed by the end of the year. Photo: Carl Glassman/Tribeca Trib

By the end of the year, many cyclists, walkers and joggers will have reason to celebrate.

The long-awaited bikeway/walkway along West Street in front of Brookfield Place, between Vesey and Albany streets, will be accessible, ending what has been, for many, a maddening detour around Brookfield Place, formerly the World Financial Center.

Shilpan Patel, project manager for the State Department of Transportation, announced the schedule Tuesday to Community Board 1’s Battery Park City Committee.

The path-blocking work is part of the Route 9A Reconstruction Project, which has dragged on for more than a decade and will be “substantially completed” by next January, Patel said. The project included the segment of West Street from Chambers to Albany.

The announcement came nine months after CB1 passed a resolution, urging all agencies involved in the complex road project to speed up the work.

At the time, CB1 chair Catherine McVay Hughes said that she frequently hears from cyclists, walkers and runners who are annoyed by the blocks-long detour around Brookfield Place.

Currently, Patel said, the DOT is working on laying pavers along the bike path, as well as raising the grade and installing utilities.

Patel also announced that the Battery Park City Authority will be responsible for maintaining the thoroughfare, including the bikeway and the median between the north- and southbound roadways.

The contract will last for two years with the possibility of an extension, Robin Forst, an Authority spokeswoman, said.