At Tribeca's Cobblestone Crossings, City to Pave Way for Smoother Passage

The cobblestone crossing at Vestry and Washington streets, left, that is slated to be resurfaced and look much like the redone crossing at Hudson and Vestry streets, right. Photos: Carl Glassman/Tribeca Trib

The city is on the road to remedying some of Tribeca’s ankle-twisting crosswalk problems.

Six neighborhood crossings that now require pedestrians to step on uneven and often widely-spaced cobblestone blocks will be replaced with smooth granite pavers, according to a city proposal. New non-skid pedestrian ramps, also known as curb cuts, will be installed on corners where they now don’t exist, making the intersections compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act.   

“Everything is going to be smooth so that for someone who’s walking or in a wheelchair or walking with a cane or crutches, it’ll be a nice even surface,” said Corenzo Wilkerson, an engineer with the city’s Department of Design and Construction, which is in charge of the installations. Because the crossings are located in Tribeca’s historic districts, Wilkerson presented the proposed changes to Community Board 1’s Landmarks and Preservation Committee for advisory approval, which the committee and the full board granted. 

Here are the six current cobblestone crossings that are slated for an upgrade. Drawings by the NYC Department of Design and Construction; photos by Carl Glassman/Tribeca Trib

Jay and Staple

Pedestrian ramps will be installed on all four corners, along with four ADA compliant crosswalks. Currently no crosswalks are delineated there.

Laight and Collister

At this “T” intersection, a granite paver crosswalk across Collister will be installed along with pedestrian ramps on both corners of the street.

Jay and Greenwich

Some pedestrians choose to cross Jay Street on the Greenwich Street asphalt rather than risk tripping on the Jay Street cobblestones. A granite paver crosswalk will be installed on the Jay Street side, with a new pedestrian ramp added at each corner.

Harrison and Greenwich

There will be a granite paver crosswalk at Harrison Street with one pedestrian ramp on the northeast corner serving both the new crosswalk and the existing Greenwich Street crosswalk. Two ramps would be installed on the south corner.

Vestry and Washington 

New granite paver crosswalks will be installed on Vestry Street, which is now cobblestone. New pedestrian ramps are slated for all four corners of the intersection. The two Washington Street crosswalks are already granite.

Watts and Greenwich

A new granite paver sidewalk will only be installed between the two corners on the western side of Watts street. 

In all, 63 pedestrian ramps are slated to be installed in Tribeca as part of a class-action lawsuit settlement [1] that requires the city to eventually make all city street corners accessible to the disabled. 

In its resolution approving the proposed work in Tribeca, the board noted that the Department of Transportation should comprehensively remedy the neighborhood’s cobblestone-related roadway problems. That includes the especially bumpy stretch of Greenwich Street between Canal and Hubert Streets. (Some other cobblestone crossings, such as Hudson and Jay, and Greenwich and Vestry, are not on the list.)  “We want to use this opportunity to say yes, we’re grateful for this but we would like to have a holistic approach, and we would like to have more work and more input,” said Vicky Cameron, the committee co-chair.

A DOT spokesman declined to respond to questions about the agency’s plans for upgrading other cobblestone crossings in Tribeca, or for resurfacing the vehicle-rattling cobblestones on Greenwich Street. Pedestrian ramp improvements will be completed “due to them being along the stretches of the NYC DOT street resurfacing work,” the spokesman said in a statement, adding that “NYC DOT continues to explore pedestrian ramp installations at locations throughout Tribeca and across the city.”

Comments? Write to carlg@tribecatrib.com