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September 29, 2015- by Steven E. Greer
For eight years, our crucial bike path has been closed down due to Brookfield Place and WTC construction, and almost no one has thrown a fit. Despite promises that it would be completed in 2010, the path has remained a stalled project. Our feckless leaders, such as Catherine McVay Hughes or Daniel Squadron, have done nothing.
Now, a blog reports, “An eight-year Hudson River Greenway detour is set to conclude in less than two months, restoring a direct bike route along West Street near the World Trade Center site.
Since 2007, the greenway has been closed near Brookfield Place, the office and retail complex on the west side of West Street formerly known as the World Financial Center. For eight years, cyclists (and on many blocks, pedestrians) have been detoured to the streets and waterfront promenades of Battery Park City.
The area covered by the greenway closure has varied over the years. As of today, the greenway remains closed between Vesey and Thames streets.
The detour was put in place while Brookfield and the Port Authority built an underground passageway connecting the winter garden at Brookfield Place with the World Trade Center PATH station. The detour was originally supposed to end in spring 2010, according to a NYC DOT announcement, but delays ensued: the PATH tunnel didn’t open until 2013.
It seems that timetable will hold. Work is almost done on rebuilding the separated bicycle and pedestrian paths between Vesey and Albany streets, and construction equipment stored on the greenway between Albany and Thames streets should eventually be cleared out.”