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10 Run-Down Bus Stops on Riverside Drive Getting Renovations

By Emily Frost | March 23, 2016 10:58am
 The bus stops along Riverside Drive will get renovated as part of a $1.87 million project. 
Riverside Park Bus Stop Renovations
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UPPER WEST SIDE — A series of run-down bus stops along Riverside Drive are being renovated as part of a federally funded $1.87 million overhaul, officials said. 

The project, primarily funded by the U.S. Department of Transportation, will revamp the stops at West 100th, 103rd, 104th, 106th, 112th, 113th, 114th, 116th, 119th and 122nd streets to make them safer for pedestrians, said Parks Department Landscape Architect Meredith Bracken. 

The work, set to begin in the summer of 2017, will include creating ADA-accessible ramps at the stops, adding curb space and plantings, repaving, and moving the stops slightly to make their location safer for pedestrians, she explained at a meeting Monday.  However, none of the stops will be getting bus shelters.

The project will need Landmarks Preservation Commission approval, as the stops sit on Riverside Park, a landmarked green space, Bracken added.

The bus stops are currently operating in "substandard conditions," landscape architect Beth Franz of the firm Quennell Rothschild & Partners, who was contracted to create the new designs, told residents and Community Board 7 members at the meeting. 

In some places, "there were tripping hazards," she noted.

In other cases, the stops were located in places where "if the bus was to stop there, the bus itself was blocking the crosswalk," she said, explaining why they will be slightly shifted over. 

Among other issues, the pavement where the bus stop sits at West 100th Street and Riverside Drive is actually "like a big sinkhole," Franz said. 

At West 104th Street, there is no pedestrian refuge in the middle of the street, so one will be added during the renovations, she said. 

The project will also eliminate the West 104th Street stop, as it currently sits very close to the West 103rd Street stop.

"The present conditions are so bad," said board member Klari Neuwelt, praising the project. 

Community Board 7's Parks Committee voted to approve the changes between West 100th and 106th streets.

"This is a great thing. My wife uses the bus all the time so she’ll be thrilled," added local resident Ira Gershenhorn. 

The Parks Department, which is kicking in $370,000 for the project, only presented the specific changes to stops between West 100th and 106th streets on Monday. It will provide information on the changes to the Riverside Drive stops to the north to Community Board 9. 

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