It’ll take money, not love, to build Vannie bridge

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In a few years, Van Cortlandt Park visitors might have an easier time getting past the expressway that splits the Bronx’s great green expanse if a new pedestrian bridge is built.

But there’s a hitch. 

The amount of money pledged for the expanse across the Major Deegan Expressway is about $10 million short of its projected $21.5 million price tag. At least that’s according to Bharat Parekh, senior project executive for the city’s design and construction department, who shared the news last week with Community Board 8’s parks and recreation committee.

The 220-foot span is planned just off the Old Croton Aqueduct Trail, leading into the Allen Shandler Recreation area just west of Woodlawn Cemetery. About $4 million already has been committed through state lawmakers like Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz and state Sen. Jeffrey Klein in 2015, while the city has earmarked $8 million through its environmental protection and parks departments.

Back then, it was believed the bridge would be completed by 2019. But then the aqueduct itself got in the way.

The DEP, Parekh said, ultimately added conditions related to how close the project would come to the aqueduct because the bridge must be undergirded by a solid foundation. 

“They did not want to have any kind of disruptions in the close vicinity of the aqueduct,” Parekh said. “So they wanted us to stay clear 100 feet on either side of the aqueduct.”

What followed was some intense negotiations with DEP, Parekh said, which ultimately reduced the aqueduct buffer requirement from 100 feet to 50.

While moving the project away from the aqueduct might have added to the final price tag, that wasn’t the only issue taken into consideration, Parekh said. For example, the original budget didn’t take into account additional costs, including procuring a design consultant, which alone adds about $2 million. Engineering supervision from an outside construction management firm adds another $2.5 million.

And then there’s material testing — crucial because the project involves a bridge.

“Material testing is extremely important,” Parekh said, adding that inspections for welding, steel and connections is another $1 million.

Oh, and don’t forget the trees — like the 80 needed to be removed to make room for the bridge.

“Now, we are getting into more details, we exactly know what is the impact, we have the tree survey, we know how many trees are going to be affected,” Parekh said. “We know what kind of species of trees are going to be affected, so we have more information right now to come up with the cost, which is more reliable.”

The history of the project goes way back, said Bob Bender, chair of the parks and recreation committee, and involves not just CB8, but also Community Board 7 and Community Board 12, which share oversight of the park. It’s been a slow process, but one that’s been worth it.

“And here we are now talking about the design,” Bender told The Riverdale Press ahead of the meeting. “I’m excited we’ve gotten to this point, but I’m frustrated it took as long as it did. It’s taken longer than it ever should have. The highways divide up the park and make it difficult to get across, especially east to west.”

Now, given the obstacles, Bender said, the proposed location, while not ideal, is one he can live with. It’s slightly southwest of Jerome Avenue and East 233rd Street, itself just northeast of the bridge’s original proposed location.

“There really is nowhere better than this to locate this bridge because DEP ruled out the initial location,” Bender said. “As you move north, you’re running into a parking lot, you’re running into a ball field — you have to do a tremendous amount of relocation on the east side, until you get up to the area where (the proposed bridge) is right now. So once DEP put in that restriction about proximity to the aqueduct, I think this became inevitable as the location.”

As for the updated timeline, DDC aims to complete final design by next January with the goal of starting construction the following year.

But Councilman Andrew Cohen isn’t overly optimistic.

“The project is really on a knife’s edge,” he said, adding it faces some “uphill challenges at this point. If there’s not a real strong consensus that this bridge should be built, I know many of the stakeholders who have given us the $12 million would be happy to take their money back and call it a day.”

For his part, Bender wants that bridge built.

“The benefit to the park and the benefit to the park users by having a bridge that will get us across the Deegan is enormous,” Bender said. “It just opens up the east and west sides of the park in a way that they’re not accessible to each other right now.”

“I’m not sure how we come up with another $10 million for this project,” he added. “And that means that the timeline that you’ve laid out here, frankly, from my point of view, doesn’t seem realistic without actually having the money in hand. And that’s discouraging.”

Van Cortlandt Park, Bharat Parekh, Community Board 8, parks and recreation, Old Croton Aqueduct Trail, Jeffrey Dinowitz, Jeffrey Klein, DEP, Bob Bender, DDC, Andrew Cohen, Major Deegan Expressway, Zak Kostro

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