The schedule for the project has yet to be finalized

The pedestrian crossing across West Street at Rector Street has been elevated since shortly after 9/11, when a pre-fabricated, temporary bridge was installed. Now that that bridge has been in place several years, Battery Park City Authority (BPCA) has proposed a permanent replacement, which was presented to Community Board 1 this week.

Like the existing bridge, the new span was designed by SHoP Architects. Designers employed an innovative “lenticular truss” for the new bridge to make it both structurally strong and lightweight. The strategic design allows the bridge to be constructed off site and then installed on piers across West Street in a matter of days. The entire process would take approximately one year.

The new bridge would have a block-long ramp on the Battery Park City side, starting at West Thames Street, and span West Street diagonally to land just north of the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel plaza on the east side, where it would also be fully accessible.

Stakeholders including the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, city and state Departments of Transportation, Hudson River Park Trust, and City Planning will need to approve the bridge’s design before work would begin. With their support, BPCA would be able to budget its own funds to build and install the bridge. No timeline has been finalized, but if expedited the new bridge could be in place by 2011.

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