Good news for cyclists pedaling through Greenwood Heights, Gowanus, and Red Hook: Hamilton and Third Avenues are getting a two-way bike path separated from traffic.
The overhaul is the latest piece of the Brooklyn Waterfront Greenway, the slowly-but-surely materializing 14-mile, tree-lined bike path planned to run along the length of the borough's waterfront from Greenpoint to Bay Ridge (PDF). The Hamilton and Third Avenues portion is still in the final design stages, and work isn't set to begin until December, 2016. The project will eliminate a lane of Hamilton Avenue, bringing it down from four to three in one direction, and will narrow car lanes on both Hamilton and Third, according to a presentation the Department of Transportation gave to community boards 6 and 7 (PDF).
The bike path will eliminate a lane of car traffic that currently ends at the turnoff for Home Depot. (New York City Department of Transportation)
Both community boards voted to approve the plan at meetings in December and January. (Red Hook, Park Slope, and Gowanus's bike-loving Community Board 6 okayed it unanimously, but for one abstention, while Greenwood Heights' Community Board 7 saw more dissent, with 6 against to 25 in favor.) CB7 district manager Jeremy Laufer said he shares the majority of his board's view on making the thoroughfare habitable for cyclists.
"My opinion now is the board's opinion: I am in favor of it," he said. "We see a need for various methods of transportation in our community."
Here's where the bike path is going in. (New York City Department of Transportation)
Laufer said the main concerns raised by opponents were that the narrowing of the street would inhibit the flow of car traffic, and disrupt drivers entering and exiting businesses along the route. He noted that the Hamilton Avenue Marine Transfer Station is set to open soon (the Department of Sanitation says in 2017), meaning an estimated 160 garbage trucks a day will soon be arriving to unload their noxious cargo, and they'll have to cross the bike path.
The work is supposed to cost $6.1 million, $2.8 million of that coming from the feds, the rest from the city, and it is supposed to wrap in late 2017. Next on the list for greenway construction: Sunset Park.
