A bird's eye view of the Promenade South design

As the residential population continues to boom in Lower Manhattan, the New York State Department of Transportation (SDOT) has set its sights on improving pedestrian traffic flow at a particularly active intersection. The focus is on the busy crossroads of West Street (or "Route 9A") and Battery Place, where the roadways were originally built with Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel and other commuter traffic top of mind.

Now, SDOT has redesigned the intersection, along with the rest of West Street up to West Thames Street, as a tree-lined boulevard called "Promenade South." The $70 million plan revamps the basic configuration of West Street's wide lanes and Battery Place's car-centric layout, instead giving the community wider sidewalks, pedestrian plazas, a bikeway, and plenty of greenery.

The first stage of work on Promenade South, led by contractor Conti Enterprises, kicked off last week, with SDOT starting to build a temporary bikeway/walkway along Little West Street, just west of the current one. By moving that pathway, SDOT is able to shift southbound West Street traffic west to begin underground utility work and reconstruction of the main roadway.

The remaining four stages of the project, which will continue through 2006, involve shifting the vehicular lanes of Battery Place north to expand the sidewalk on the Battery Park side and to make room for the new bikeway that will link the Hudson and East River greenways.

Perhaps the project's greatest undertaking is the reconstruction of the Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel approach and entrance. The mouth of the "north portal," which now sits almost flush with Battery Place, will be moved slightly north to accommodate the new pedestrian plazas and signal-protected crosswalks. The portal will also get a new, decorative roof that will radiate from the tunnel entrance like sunbeams and help limit traffic noise at street level.

SDOT also is taking the opportunity to rebuild the tunnel's roadbeds and interior walls, which has required extra planning in order to balance high weekday traffic volumes and community concerns about night and weekend noise, vibrations, and other disruptions.

The north Battery Tunnel entrance will be crowned with a new roof

As for traffic disruptions, SDOT plans to keep traffic moving throughout the project, both at street level and inside the tunnel. While work in the tubes and around the north portal will take place over the course of 12 months, the interior work -- which requires closing half of the tunnel's traffic lanes -- will take place over the course of seven weekends beginning in February 2005.

Because Promenade South is one of many construction projects taking place downtown, SDOT is reaching out to the community as much as possible to share information, log concerns, and field questions. And in its efforts to minimize the impacts of the project on daily life, Schmalz's team is using ultra-low-sulfur-fuel vehicles, maintaining vehicular and pedestrian traffic circulation, and limiting heavy construction work to preset hours.

At SDOT's most recent community meeting for the project, Schmalz and his team assured residents and workers from the area that access to buildings will be maintained throughout the project, that rodent-control measures are a top priority, and that the contractors plan to preserve as many existing trees along West Street in the final design as possible.

Promenade South will be completed by spring 2006 and is designed to be compatible with all alternatives for the northern section of the Route 9A project (from West Thames to Chambers Street). The Draft Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement for that section, including the option to build an underpass alongside the World Trade Center site, was completed last year, and the project is now under review by SDOT, the Federal Highway Administration, and other agencies.

To learn more about Promenade South and to subscribe to the project newsletter, please click here. The project's community liaison is Patrick Jordan, who can be reached at 1-800-714-0454. Concerns and questions can be sent to route9A@dot.state.ny.us and to the Route 9A Outreach Field Office, 17 Battery Place, Suite 906, New York, NY 10280.

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