By Jon Schuppe
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
MANHATTAN — As they embark on a three-year, $62 million rehabilitation of the historic High Bridge, city officials are showing off preliminary design plans and looking for public input.
The first in a series of public presentations will be held Tuesday night at the Highbridge Recreation Center in Washington Heights.
The bridge, which is in High Bridge Park and connects Washington Heights to the Bronx, first opened above the Harlem River in 1848, making it the oldest standing bridge in New York City.
It was built as part of the Old Croton Aqueduct, which used gravity to supply the city with drinking water from Westchester County. New York stopped using the system in 1958, but the bridge remained a popular spot for pedestrians until it was closed a couple years later.
The High Bridge project is one of eight “regional parks” envisioned as part of Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s PlaNYC to improve the city’s green spaces. The other Manhattan piece in that plan is Fort Washington Park in Washington Heights.
The Bloomberg administration has set aside nearly $50 million in city money for the High Bridge rehab, with the rest coming from federal grants. The project will include repair of the brick walkway and supporting arches, new safety fencing, restoration of historic hand railings, and construction of bicycle and wheelchair ramps.
Bloomberg announced the bridge plans in 2007. After a delay, the project got back on track earlier this year, when the Parks Department awarded a $4 million contract to Lichtenstein Consulting Engineers to design the renovation. The design work is expected to take until next February. Construction is scheduled to begin in August 2011, and is expected to be completed in December 2013.
Tuesday’s public meeting will be hosted by the Parks Department and the Department of Design and Construction. It will be begin at 6 p.m. at the Highbridge Recreation Center on Amsterdam Avenue and 173rd Street.
Another meeting will be held in the Bronx, but officials have not yet set a date and location.
