East 81st Street Pedestrian Bridge Nears Completion, Officials Say

UPPER EAST SIDE, NY — A long-delayed city reconstruction project on the Upper East Side is nearing completion, city officials said during a presentation at a recent neighborhood community board meeting.

Work of the East 81st Street Pedestrian Bridge is expected to be substantially complete by December 2017, meaning the bridge will once again be usable for neighborhood residents, officials from the city Department of Design and Construction said. The reconstructed bridge will provide a link to and from the East River Esplanade.

The project has been nearly three years in the making, but was initially supposed to be complete in 18 months. An unexpected need to retrofit the bridge's north abutment and design changes added 13 months of work to the project, city officials said in a presentation.

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The design changes made to the project include the creation of a viewing window on the new pedestrian bridge, less lighting fixtures on the structure and a redesigned ADA accessible ramp on East 81st Street, city officials said.

Construction work remaining for the project includes installation of the bridge's viewing window and fabricating and installing stainless steel fencing, city officials said.

Photo courtesy Department of Design and Construction