“Horrendous” Bay 16th Street pedestrian bridge will get a makeover

Good news, Bath Beach residents.

The Bay 16th Street pedestrian bridge over the Belt Parkway is slated to get a makeover.

Laurie Windsor, chair of Community Board 11’s Traffic and Transportation Committee, gave a presentation provided by the Department of Transportation at the board’s general meeting held at the Bensonhurst Center for Health and Rehabilitation on Thursday, October 10.

The bridge’s extremely angled steps and broken cement walkway will be removed and replaced with smooth ramping and a path straight across.

“It’s horrendous, that bridge,” Windsor said. “It has steps. Try doing it with a baby carriage or bicycle.”

In addition, the walkway overpass will be enclosed with a roof, plus screening on all sides so the views of the waterfront and highway are not blocked. The height of the bridge will also be raised from nine feet to the regulation 15’6”.

“Right now there are accidents with trucks getting stuck under it,” Windsor said, noting that although trucks are not allowed on the Belt Parkway, many drivers get on it inadvertently after crossing the Verrazano Bridge. Also, many commercial GPS systems are not correct and often lead truckers onto the Belt.

“It will be a beautiful thing,” she added.

Construction is not slated to begin until 2015.

In the meantime, CB11 members made a recommendation on the proposal: adding planters on the walkway and around the bridge to ease flooding.

“Natural flood litigation with planters is an amendment,” said District Manager Marnee Elias-Pavia.

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