BBP Infrastructure Updates: Swimming In Construction

By on June 22, 2018 7:45 am in brooklyn bridge park

The ever-on-top-of-it reporters at Brooklyn Paper have more info on the good news/bad news about the permanent pool coming to the neighborhood.

The good news is that the pool is expected to be completed in about two years.

The bad news is that its construction may well wreak havoc on park access.

When I first posted about the pool a couple of weeks ago, one of my questions was about how it would affect the Squibb Bridge access from the neighborhood. Turns out, pool construction and the pool itself might eliminate it entirely.

Falling under “depends on your point of view” is the possibility of a new bridge from Montague Street to the park–this sounds like good news to me, though I suspect others in the neighborhood might feel differently.

…a handful of Brooklyn Heights pols recently penned a letter to the Department of Transportation, asking transit gurus to include a permanent, handicapped-accessible bridge in their plan for rehabilitating the expressway.

Complicating matters is the possibility that pool construction will overlap the overhaul of the BQE.

As always, hit the original article for more details…it’s because of their work that we can share these stories with you, and they deserve your clicks.

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  • Bob Grobe

    In 2008 a study looked in detail at several alternatives for another entrance. The best solution looks to be a ramp from the foot of Remsen Street heading sharply to the southwest down to the Pier 5 uplands (see pages 35-42).

    The study: https://www.yumpu.com/en/document/view/9481862/brooklyn-bridge-park-transportation-study-3-2008/6

  • Cranberry Beret

    Closing the Squibb bridge would be a huge giveaway to the Pierhouse residents who don’t want the public traipsing past their bathroom windows. (Why don’t those people get shades??) Pressure needs to be applied to the Parks dept and the local pols to increase overall park access, not shift access to some other spot. Not to mention it would be negligence on the part of the park corporation’s board to have spent the money retrofitting the bridge 2 years ago only to close it now in their zeal for the pool (which mind you, they refuse to find a spot for within the park’s borders itself).

  • Banet

    They’re just talking about closing the bridge during pool construction, not permanently.

  • gc

    Any word on whether this will be a year round pool?
    Much better return on investment if it could be used all year vs just one season each year.

  • Banet

    No word yet. They’re holding a series of public meetings for input. They’d like it to be year-round if they find a workable plan.

  • Jorale-man

    It doesn’t seem like it should be that difficult to clear a narrow path for pedestrians on the back side of the park while construction takes place in the front part. So often, these things become all-or-nothing propositions.

    I’m also hoping a reporter will eventually ask park officials about the fate of the old trees that are there. If anyone remembers the construction of Jane’s Carousel in Dumbo, and the old willow that was chopped down, they don’t have the greatest track record for maintaining old trees.

  • Banet

    While I’m all for big trees, I’d hate to see the pool limited in size to work around a few trees. Besides, net-net, I’d say the Park has added about 1,000 times more trees than it’s removed.