Community Board Postpones Meeting to Discuss GW Bridge Bus Station Construction

WASHINGTON HEIGHTS-INWOOD, NY — Community Board 12 — which represents Washington Heights and Inwood — has postponed a public meeting with the developers of the long-delayed George Washington Bridge Bus Station renovation.

The project's developers — George Washington Bridge Bus Station Development Venture — were scheduled to appear before the public on Monday for the Community Board's executive meeting. The meeting was rescheduled to a to-be-decided date in January to give board members time to get a walkthrough of the construction site, the board's chair Shah Ally told Patch.

"The meeting will have more of a meaning after the Board has a chance to see first hand the progress of the project," Ally told Patch in an email.

Ally told Patch that the Community Board hopes to "have a better understanding" of the project's status by January.

The developers weren't going to take questions at the meeting but residents were allowed to submit written questions to the Community Board ahead of time. After receiving the questions the developers were going to do their best to prepare answers to be shared at the meeting.

A spokesman for the development group told Metro earlier this month that construction challenges will push the project's completion back several months.

"Reconstruction progress of the GWB Bus Terminal has reached 90 percent completion," Gomez said in a statement sent to Metro. "The final phase consists mainly of integrating and testing all of the new systems that we are putting in place, into one smooth cohesive operation."

Construction on the bus terminal — located on a two-block stretch between West 178th and 179th streets and Fort Washington and Wadsworth avenues — began in 2014 after years of delay due to the recession and damage brought by Hurricane Sandy. The $183 million renovation of the George Washington Bridge Bus Station was first proposed 8 years ago is a joint public-private venture by the development group and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.

Photo courtesy of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey