New York City Department of Transportation (NYC DOT) Commissioner Ydanis Rodriguez, NYC Parks Commissioner Sue Donoghue, and NYC Economic Development Corporation President and CEO Andrew Kimball announced today the city will install more than four lane miles of on-street protected bike lanes to begin quickly building out the Harlem River Greenway in the Bronx, with the first project already completed in the Highbridge neighborhood of the borough and construction underway on a new waterfront park in the South Bronx, called Lower Concourse Park. The projects will be part of a new seven-mile greenway stretching from Van Cortlandt Park to Randall’s Island Park that will help better connect Bronxites to their waterfront with new open space and bike routes. Construction follows two years of greenway planning that concluded this April and will be summarized in the implementation plan report to be released in the coming months. Over the course of the planning process, NYC DOT spoke with hundreds of community members in both English and Spanish, both at three rounds of workshops and tabling at over 30 community events.
NYC DOT announced Wednesday it had completed its first 2025 greenway project along the Depot Place and Exterior Street ramp in Highbridge. The project provides a critical connection for cyclists and pedestrians to cross over the Major Degan Expressway and Metro-North tracks to access the river waterfront’s Bridge Park and Roberto Clemente State Park. As part of the project, NYC DOT added a barrier protected bike lane as well as new pedestrian space. Depot Place is the only waterfront access point for over a mile in each direction.
Additional projects include:
- Van Cortlandt Park South and Bailey Avenue cycling and pedestrian connections (0.5 miles): NYC DOT will implement a dramatic intersection redesign of Van Cortlandt Park South and Bailey Avenue to improve cycling and pedestrian safety as well as connectivity to the cherished Bronx park and to the existing Putnam Trail. As part of the project, NYC DOT is realigning an off-ramp, closing a slip lane, and expanding cycling and pedestrian space to naturally slow turning vehicles and improve safety. Once a project that would take years, if not decades, through a capital redesign process, NYC DOT’s recently expanded concrete resources will allow the agency to deliver this large-scale upgrade in-house this year.
- Bailey Avenue protected two-way bike lane (1.8 miles): NYC DOT will install new pedestrian islands, redesigned intersections, and a two-way bike path on the west side of Bailey Avenue, from Van Cortlandt Park South and West 225 St/W Kingsbridge Rd. The project will better connect cyclists and pedestrians to Van Cortland Park from Kingsbridge and Kingsbridge Heights and enhance safety on a truck route with 18 serious injuries and two fatalities between 2020 and 2024. The project stems from community requests to address dangerous speeding and cyclist safety on the corridor.
- Exterior Street two-way bike path (0.8 miles): NYC DOT will add a barrier-protected two-way bike lane on a southern portion of Exterior Street from the 145th Street Bridge to the Madison Avenue Bridge. This project will add a bike lane on the closest continuous street to the river while improving access to the Madison Avenue Bridge toward Manhattan and creating a new connection to the new Lower Concourse Park.
- Lower Concourse Park (2.3 acres): Later this year, the NYC EDC and NYC Parks plan to open Lower Concourse Park, a 2.3-acre park that will be located along the Harlem River between 144th and 146th Street bringing infrastructure upgrades and much-needed open green space and waterfront access to South Bronx communities. The park is one key part of the city's $194 million Lower Concourse Infrastructure plan, a historic investment into this portion of the Bronx led by the NYC EDC, and will bring new infrastructure upgrades, make streets safer, and create new connections to the waterfront.
- Bruckner Boulevard two-way bike lane (1.2 miles): NYC DOT will install new pedestrian islands, redesigned intersections and a two-way bike path on Bruckner Boulevard, from Lincoln Avenue to Cypress Place to fill a greenway gap and enhance safety for school children accessing two schools along the corridor, DREAM Charter School and the South Bronx Charter School for International Culture and the Arts.
- Willow Avenue two-way bike path (0.05 miles): NYC DOT will add a short, two-way bike path on Willow Avenue between East 133rd Street and East 132nd Street to help connect cyclists from Bruckner Boulevard to Randall’s Island.
You can read the full press release here.