I would love to see the South Street viaduct turned into something like the High Line someday. Would be great if it was turned into a costal sea wall / park to protect against storm surges.
That’s great to hear! So in adding these other stairs (in the case of the one 28th St) will they be taking down the caged one? I didn’t know that was even temporary if they are referring to new staircases being added as permanent. I never liked the caged one, always felt sketchy going up and down it, nor was it pleasant to look at.
3 Likes
Yeah, those caged stairs feel very unstable.
My understanding is that they are converting the full lot to open space, all the way to the corner.
1 Like
4 Likes
Wow, all the way to 10th Ave? I thought a small building would eventually go there, but I guess that’s nice for it to serve as a more “open” entrance to that segment of the highline.
The southern end of the Highline may be gone but it’s so interesting to see where it was in the buildings that have clear openings in them/through them from where it use to run, one of the most visible being at the Western Electric Complex.
That’s what it looks like, but I’m not 100% sure. If that is the case, Zaha’s building will be very visible from 10th ave.
This is the lot:
2 Likes
What I understood from the render was that the stairs would just take up the little outdoor seating area of the Il Piccolo Ristoro Cafe before it’s blocked of by fencing, but I guess if the fencing to the 2 areas has been combined to be one large area it’s possible that a park like setting could be extending to 10th?
Like, rebuild the section from the current southern terminus at Gansevoort street all the way down to Bank Street.
1 Like
last week, saw that a crane had arrived next to the finished extension. when I walked by this weekend, it looks like sections of the wooden bridge have started to arrive on site.
13 Likes
from yesterday afternoon, they have started building the bridge.
guess they are going to build it in sections and lift into place? that is going to be interesting.
14 Likes
I believe that is the plan (to build it in sections that is), but it’s questionable whether it will be lifted or raised/jacked up into position because the sections/nodules seem to be very large. And as far as I’m aware, the column footing for the bridge isn’t built yet, which is questionable why they would start to bring the pieces when that hasn’t been built yet. There are “13” nodules (13 upward pointing triangles) making up the bridge with 5 from the extension to the first column support, 4 to the other column support, and another 4 to the Manhattan west connection point, so this portion could be anywhere in that mix, there’s not really any indication of what it is as we can’t see any “end” atm.
This thing is big though.
10 Likes
They’ve pieced together more pieces of the bridge, I’m still not quite sure how it is going to be installed though. Could either be partially disassembled and moved then lifted with a crane or it could be moved and then jacked up into place. The bridge isn’t sitting on the ground though. Either way, they still need to install the 2 piers that support the bridge
15 Likes
the ‘footbridge’ is almost complete. they’ve built it in two segments: one with 8 A’s, and a second with 5 A’s. which, looking at the renderings, are the segments from MW to the second pier and from that pier to the Highline extension. Still no signs of the piers — though I did see metal plates covering the roadway where they presumably would go.
at this point, guessing they are going to shut down the streets and tunnel entrance here one weekend to place the piers and lift the bridge into place.
12 Likes
I think they were getting ready to lift the bridge this morning. I didn’t realize it was wood. The beams are huge!
15 Likes
Nice captures of the moment! CLT beams/members are typically very large, but one could expect steel members to be approximately the same cross dimension, though slightly smaller. I’m surprised after all this time you didnt know if was wood though! 
I wonder when the piers were installed 
but now that things are wrapping up here, it will be extremely nice for all the construction fences and boards to be removed from both under/around the extension and bridge and on the connection point to Manhattan West. It will open up the area immensely. Now if only the small side lot next to the bridge would actually start construction and across the way, if something would actually be proposed at 360 10th Ave…
1 Like
Really nice pictures. The first section is getting installed this weekend and I believe the next section is getting installed next weekend. Should open before June.
3 Likes
Anyone in the construction industry know how longs something like this will last? 70 years? 100 years?
Well constantly maintained (which we will assume it will be) it could easily last a century, unmaintained and neglected, it’s hard to tell.
1 Like
I took an abnormal amount of photos of the bridge, im eating dinner right now though so I may not get to posting my actual camera photos tonight but here are the ones from my phone. They put a US flag on the southern end of the bridge to symbolize it being “topped out” in this case, lifted in place.
20 Likes