The Rector Street Bridge spans the eight lanes of West Street. In the foreground, pedestrians cross the northbound lanes at Albany Street. Photo: Carl Glassman/Tribeca Trib
With the Rector Street Bridge due for demolition within the next few months, defenders of the “temporary” 17-year-old structure came to Community Board 1’s Transportation Committee last week to call for a reprieve.
“It turns out that if you were starting over, almost certainly people would build a bridge at Rector Street rather than the other bridge,” said Battery Park City resident and CB1 member Robert Schneck, who for months has been leading a quixotic campaign [1] to save the bridge.
The “other bridge” is the newly completed $45.5 million West Thames Street Bridge, less than two blocks south and planned years ago as the permanent replacement of the Rector Street Bridge, which went up in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks. The bridges span West Street between Battery Park City and the Financial District.
Schneck fears for the safety of the Rector Street Bridge’s users who will choose to cross the busy highway at nearby Albany Street rather than walk to the new bridge, which is a less direct route to subway lines.
One of the bridge advocates, Battery Park City resident Amy Silver, told the committee she uses the Rector Street Bridge “almost every day” because it’s the quickest way to get to where she wants to go, “especially a day like today where it’s dark, cold and rainy. Or if I’m in a hurry to get somewhere.”
“As an alternative I would use Albany Street,” she added. “I feel like it’s better than going over to West Thames Street.”
Silver was typical of many of the 1,800 people who have signed Schneck’s save-the-Rector Street Bridge petition, which also has the support of Councilwoman Margaret Chin. But their advocacy has pitted them against Battery Park City gardeners whose Liberty Community Gardens is just north of the bridge. Once the bridge ramp is removed, the number of gardeners could increase by nearly a third.
“I’m surprised that 15 years later we’re still talking about the bridge because I’ve been working for almost 15 years for expanding the community gardens, which is what’s going to happen when the bridge comes down,” said Mike McCormack, the gardens’ president, noting that there are 40 people on the gardens wait list.
“Nobody likes having to walk 100 feet further than they have to,” McCormack added, “but if you value your safety it’s not really that far.”
“I find it difficult to understand that a bridge that provides a safe route across the highway for a lot of people who live in a very dense part of Battery Park City is supposed to be taken down for a community garden,” responded an Albany Street resident.
But the gardeners were not the only ones on hand to buttress the long-standing plan to take down the state-owned bridge, a project to be overseen by the city.
Douglas Adams, from the Mayor’s Office, acknowledged that some people will make the less safe decision to cross West Street at grade rather than use the new bridge. “But there are many other factors to consider along with these,” he said. Among them, he noted, the bridge does not comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act, it stands too close to the Metropolitan College of New York’s fire exit at 60 West St., and the footing of the bridge on the west side are on top of vital underground utilities.
“Many of these are serious issues that were waived due to the bridge’s temporary nature,” he said.
Adams was backed up by officials from the city’s Economic Development Corp. and the New York State Department of Transportation.
“We brought in the modules and connected them with nuts and bolts unlike any other major permanent structure,” said Shilpan Patel of the state DOT. And unlike the Rector Street Bridge, he said, a permanent structure has a deep foundation.
Some members of the committee questioned the temporary status of a bridge that has been in service for so long. “Seventeen years does not seem very temporary to me. And over the years people have come to rely on this. Right?” said Elizabeth Lewinsohn.
But chairwoman Betty Kay maintained that the risks of keeping the bridge up outweigh those of taking it down.
“The complexities haven’t really changed and they’re pretty overwhelming,” she said. “Hence, we would be pitting one group against another. It is not even an option to have the people at Metropolitan College put at great risk because some people don’t want to walk a block from one bridge to another bridge on the Battery Park City side.”
But in a phone interview a few days after the meeting, Schneck said he’s not giving up. He largely dismisses the claims of the unsafe conditions caused by the bridge—claims he said he heard for the first time at the meeting.
“When it comes to safety the Fire Department and other government agencies don’t allow truly unsafe things to even happen,” he said. “They say it’s because of 9/11, but they wouldn’t allow a big hole in the sidewalk to exist because it’s too dangerous.”
The bridge should stay up for as long as possible, Schneck insisted. “And in the meantime, kind of bandage it up until we come up with creative ways to keep the thing there.”
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[1] http://tribecatrib.com/content/i-cant-let-them-take-it-down-can-one-man-save-rector-st-bridge