Bronx to get first new bridge in 50 years

[NYguy]

Bronx to Get First New Bridge in 50 Years

The City will design and build its first new bridge in about 50 years.

The New York City Department of Transportation will build a new, four-lane bridge in the Melrose section of the Bronx. The bridge will complete a link across East 153rd Street missing since the early 1980s when an old, turn-of the century bridge was demolished. The bridge will be located on East 153rd Street in the Bronx, across the Mott Haven rail yard from Morris Avenue to the Grand Concourse - next to Cardinal Hayes High School.

This new bridge will significantly ease congestion on the current east-west streets in the South Bronx, along 149th and 161st Streets as well as the local streets in this neighborhood. With this bridge, East 153rd Street will be a continuous east-west thoroughfare from the commercial hub of Third Avenue to the Civic Center area of the Grand Concourse. It will serve the new revitalization projects of Melrose Commons, the Concourse Shopping Plaza and the Bronx Criminal Court Complex.

The new bridge, which will cost $40 million, will follow the alignment of a former two-lane bridge over the rail yard that was built in 1902. The design and environmental impact assessment phases of the project are now underway, and construction of the new bridge is tentatively scheduled to begin in 2005, with construction to be completed by 2008.

It also will be the first cable-stayed vehicular bridge in New York City. Its graceful design, similar to the Tampa Bay Bridge in Florida, will create a very prominent landmark for this neighborhood. The cable-stayed structure will contain a tower rising above East 153rd Street to add to the Bronx skyline, with ribbons of steel cables holding up the roadway structure.

The design for the East 153rd Street Bridge received an award in July 2003 from the Art Commission of the City of New York for excellence in design.

[M. Brown]

Very Nice. It should really bring up the neighborhood

[Allan]

Looks like a nice bridge. It should help the neighborhood out quite a bit.

[wolfdawg54]

That will help the area for sure.

[andrew.w]

Here's a link to the same information above along with a rendering as it appears that the original posted image is no longer available:

Bronx to Get First New Bridge in 50 Years

It seems like quite a bridge concidering it looks like it is only crossing railroad tracks and a park, but it will certainly look cool and will be an icon for the area.

The bridge apparently has not been comleted yet. Has construction even started?

[Cotuit]

[Hotlanta]

Looks awesome! But isn't it a little bit overdone for that area? I think it should be scaled down a bit.

[nynjdude]

This reminds me of the newer bridge in Boston.

[Lowerdeck]

Curious if work on this has started yet.