By Daniel Katzive
Pedestrians and bikers who commute or ride for recreation on the 1.25-mile Cherry Walk stretch of the Hudson River Greenway face a prolonged disruption that began on Monday.
The Cherry Walk, named for the trees along that part of the greenway between West 100th and 125th streets, is closed to all pedestrian and bike traffic to allow repairs and resurfacing along this stretch. The $1.5 million project is expected to take about six months to complete, with reopening estimated in spring of 2025.
Signs posted at the point of closure include a map and a recommended bike detour which the city Parks Department says was developed in consultation with the city’s Department of Transportation. Bikers headed north are advised to climb up to Riverside Drive at West 100th Street, then eventually make their way back to the riverfront greenway via Tiemann Place, Broadway, and West 125th Street. Southbound bikers are shown a detour that exits the greenway at St. Clair Place, then follows West 125th Street, Broadway, and Tiemann Place to southbound Claremont Avenue.
The detour requires significantly more climbing than the greenway’s water level route along Cherry Walk. A check of the Strava app’s route planning software shows the now-closed route requires just 16 feet of hill work heading north, in contrast to 125 feet of elevation gain using the detour.
A Parks Department spokesman told West Side Rag: “The Cherry Walk reconstruction is a long-awaited project that cyclists and the community have been requesting for years.”
Several bikers encountering the detour for the first time on Monday seemed to take the closure in stride, though most also expressed shock when told the disruption would likely last six months.
Tom Comtegiacomo, an architect who lives downtown and bikes the Cherry Walk route daily, called the news “heartbreaking.”
An NYU research scientist named Long said he uses the greenway to commute from the university back to his home at 165th Street. He said that going forward, he might change his commute to pass through Central Park, rather than using the recommended detour.
Deborah, a New Jersey resident, said she normally leaves her car in Fort Lee and bikes down the greenway to commute to her job downtown. On Monday, she had just completed the detour from the north on her bike, showing a friend from out of town around. The closure will impact her daily travel, she said, but “It’s doable. I’ll make it work.”
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Heartbreaking is losing a loved one, not being inconvenienced by a path repair. #perspective
Six months is really over the top. While there are perhaps areas that could use repaving, this is enough time to build a bike superhighway. Not to mention that the path has repeatedly been closed north of the GWB (as it remains now) for pavement repair efforts that typically fail within days or weeks. The closures to the path seem to persist significantly longer than the fixes do.
For some reason, the Parks Department also loves diverting bike traffic on to Broadway… the “detour” they created for the closed path section by Fort Tryon Park requires robust cardio health, nerves of steel and a generous life insurance policy.
An alternative solution would have been to close one side of the path at a time and leave room for bikers and runners to pass through, but that apparently was too complicated for consideration. Others have suggested creating a temporary lane from the Hudson River Parkway but that seems even less likely to pass muster.
Closing one side of the path at a time would not be workable because of how narrow it is to start with. It’s only about 12 feet wide to start with, and two-thirds of that is allocated to bicycle traffic. In spite of that, cyclists consistently use the small portion of the path allocated to runners. Cutting that in half to six feet (less, really, because they’d need room for the barrier) would be a disaster. I’m not a cyclist, but I’m guessing that four feet would not be enough for two bicycles to pass each other. And as a runner, I know that two feet is definitely not enough for two runners to pass each other.
Segments of the Harlem River Greenway are 3′ wide. It’s miserable but it works in a pinch.
The repair work here is needed but yes, it will do not nearly enough and take far too long, and the detour is poorly planned and not suitable for many. Typical NYC dysfunction.
I don’t disagree. That said, given we’re talking NYC, I’d be amazed if it gets done within six months.
Glad to hear it, as it’s needed new paving for a long time. I hope they take the opportunity to think the lane markers, the signage, and the language of the signage, which thinking was apparently not done the first time around! (“Does ‘peds’ stand for ‘pedalers’?)
Shouldn’t take six months to repave a one mile stretch of a bike path. Maybe a week or two.
Cherry Walk was also closed from September 2020 to January 2021.
Can you remember why?
https://www.westsiderag.com/2021/01/19/cherry-walk-in-riverside-park-reopens-after-extended-closure
Damage from Sandy
The detour should be a lane on the highway blocked off with concrete barriers.
(1) Yesterday, I saw a biker dismount at 100th Street, walk around the yellow police tape, get back on the bike, and resume traveling north–much in the same way that many cyclists ignore the “Cyclists Must Dismount” signs on barriers at either end of the promenade between 72nd and 78th Streets. (2) When is the Parks Department finally going to address the considerable overgrowth along the stretch of walkway beside the river between 82nd and 90th Streets? This is a potentially dangerous situation, as northbound walkers are now forced to move into the bike lane.
Ha, smart rider. Because they always seem to block off projects like this days or weeks before the work actually begins. Eventually, it WILL be impassable, though.
(Off topic but related: so DOT removed the asphalt on West End Avenue from 104-107 in preparation for repavement weeks ago, but still hasn’t repaved. We have rough washboard streets to cross and no lane markings….why?)
side streets from 111th to 114th were not repaved for almost six weeks.
THIS!!! While chopping and replacement used to be done over a weeks tops, this year has gone for close to two months now. Someone somewhere either run out of money or is skimming money from the budget.
Outrageous stuff
Thumbs up to Deborah. That is what NYC needs more of, more positivity and less complaining especially from car drivers. I just turned 74 and have been riding a bike here for 30+ years, no car. Over the top? Get real! We need congestion pricing so we can breathe.
What about pedestrians? You give all those details for bikers – some of whom should not even be there ever! – but none for walkers and runners. 😒
The details for pedestrians are basically the same: detour onto Riverside Drive. Though I suppose you can incorporate some of the pedestrian paths in the park if you wish.
I really hope this construction includes better signage for pedestrian lanes vs. bike lanes.
Pedestrians are now swimmers. Make sure to check the tide before leaving home so the currents carry you the way you want to go.
PPPMPPP.
Poor maintenance, and poor planning, have made Parks shut down the Hudson River Greenway (HRG) again and again. Its north end is closed, as well. The DOT’s detour there is Broadway, on which cyclists are regularly killed or injured. Some ‘consultation’ that was.
Parks NEVER rakes dead leaves on the upper HRG; ask me for photos. Leaves release acidic tannins. The acid has destroyed the pavement and caused12-foot sinkholes.
Parks plants trees close to the path but they pave it with asphalt. Tree roots buckle asphalt. It’s like biking on a washboard. Pavement near trees should be concrete.
The DOT can repave a block in a day. The Parks Department will take half a year to do this. They’ll probably make the same errors they always do: build to fail, and then shut it down again and again.
More than 300 cyclists are in the Hudson River Greenway Facebook group. And we’ve had it with these unannounced, open-ended closures.
Let’s hope they make clearly delineated paths for pedestrians/joggers and bicyclists!!!
The repairs are long overdue!
When I see news like this I’m always reminded of this Dutch highway repair project in 2016 in which they constructed a tunnel under a highway and put it in place in a weekend. Six months, it’s ridiculous
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ztQ8Oj2fSB0
I hope this is wrapped up in time for annual Great Saunter, fingers crossed. And +1 for distinct lanes for cyclists and pedestrians, the shared space is no fun for anyone
Cyclists, please be considerate of park users while cutting through on the walking paths. Lots of little kids, the elderly. Just slow down and let them know you’re there. Thank you.
You didn’t mention that the Greenway is also indefinitely closed above 181st St, with no detour at all.
There is a better way but NYS DOT needs to be made to care:
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/17MELlB3FpxvVcRFLllZJ5E-wl0HoxnD2IUfHSaeYQkA/edit?usp=drivesdk
Yay!!! I’ve been waiting for this!!!
would be great to get same info on when north of GWB greenway closure construction will be done just signs saying closed for 30+ days — only online source about it to date is “Westside Greenway Closed Again North of GWB” on reddit
This should be connected a little further north to the West Harlem Piers Park.