Construction YouTube
What to expect from construction The construction is set to happen in two phases, and the city has promised that at least 42% of the park will be usable at any time. The completion date for the project is 2025, 13 years after Superstorm Sandy. The original plan for the park leaned all its flood protection on a wall and levee system that ran alongside FDR Drive, on the western edge of the park. That plan would have required closing a lane of the highway, forcing construction crews to work, and perform the noisy process of pile driving, at night, across the street from NYCHA buildings with thousands of residents. aspecuk The new plan puts the wall out of view, underneath much of the park. The wall, sandwiched between two massive infills of a million tons of soil, runs underneath the new track, a full size soccer field and other courts and lawns that will be built. The entire East River resiliency effort has been split into two broad project areas. A construction company has already begun work on Asser Levy Park, above Peter Cooper Village on 23rd Street, and is constructing a floodwall there. The city has received two bids for the remaking of East River Park, both tens of millions of dollars over the projected cost of construction, and is still in the process of choosing which bid to accept. Barring changes made by the contractor, construction will begin in late-spring of this year, said Ian Michaels, a spokesman for the city’s Department of Design and Construction. Construction will close off the stretch of the park that runs from East Houston Street to East 10th Street, and most of the park from Delancey Street to Montgomery Street. The construction will cut off bike and other access to the East River Greenway, forcing riders, walkers and runners back into the city from 13th Street to Pier 42, at Montgomery Street. That will leave the park’s tennis and basketball courts and several lawns around the Williamsburg Bridge, as well as the playground by East 10th Street, open for now. Midway through construction, those areas will close, and the park’s rebuilt baseball fields and track will reopen.