By Gus Saltonstall
After a push from a local elected official, the city has begun repaving on an Upper West Side stretch of Riverside Drive previously labeled a “safety concern.”
This week, the New York City Department of Transportation (DOT) repaved the road on the east side of Riverside Drive from West 97th to 102nd streets. This stretch is also known as Little Riverside Drive.
The work by the city follows a letter to DOT, sent Friday from City Councilmember Shaun Abreu, which described hazardous street conditions along the eastern side of Riverside Drive between West 97th and 109th streets,
“This stretch of roadway has deteriorated to a point where it poses a safety concern for those who use it,” Abreu wrote in the letter, shared with West Side Rag. “The pavement is severely cracked and uneven, creating hazardous conditions that have only worsened through the past winter’s freeze-thaw cycle.”
A couple of days after the letter, the DOT began repaving the 13-block stretch, starting with the southern set of blocks.
Here’s what the road looked like (righthand photo) before the recent repaving.
In 2025, the DOT resurfaced several east-west cross streets near and within the West 97th to 109th streets stretch along Riverside Drive, but the Little Riverside Drive corridor did not receive the same maintenance.
The Rag will keep an eye out for when the stretch gets fully paved.
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About time! Every time we drive through there I cross my fingers we don’t get a flat tire.
Kudos to Abreu for taking care of quality of life issues. Everyone here constantly complains that our representatives are not focused on issues that impact their lives, so we should get credit when someone does and actually creates positive change. Thanks!
God bless
On another DOT issue, when are they going to reopen the 125 Street exit going north on the West Side Highway? It’s been about 9 months to a year and very inconvenient to drivers who need to use it for work.
Going to cost millions or more to fix that exit. The infrastructure below it is crumbling, so the risk is that the ramp will collapse if vehicles keep driving on it. It is part of the overall disintegration of the Riverside Park infrastructure over the train tracks.
Thanks Josh. However DOT seems to be redoing The 79 st South exit? Motorists going north after 96 St don’t have an exit until 158 St and need to drive on city streets where congestion abounds.
I was wondering why the park walkway (east of the sports fields) had all the blockades near the center. Both pedestrians and wheelers have to squeeze by them. All the tunnels for trains and/or cars are old. No federal funding for the health of anyone/anything!
When I see things like that I look up at the building and I think150 units, maybe only 150 breadwinners, maybe an average salary of 100k, maybe 3% city income tax, maybe $450,000 in income taxes collected from a single building each year. So thats, idk, 200 feet of roadway and based on a quick Google search that’s probably $40,000 to pave. So, the city spends, 410k policing and removing trash from in front of that building? Where do the real estate and sales taxes collected go?
Schools, Arts, Regulation and Administration (Dept of Buildings, Environmental Protection, Consumer Affairs, etc.), Parks, Fire fighting, EMS services, Legal, Homeless services, Small Business Services, and so on and so on. Check out the nyc.gov website and see all the things the city does!
Maybe now they will get around to West 94th Street between Amsterdam and CPW which has been in far worse condition since the late 1980s.
Contact your City Council rep!
Good to hear.
Need to repave all the way up to W 125th Street and reopen the 125th Street exit.
I have emails going back 10 years trying to get this stretch of road paved with all the UWS and Manhattan politicians and DOT so thank you Shaun for finally getting this done.
The DOT should start a campaign on RSD, the divided boulevard of painted parking spots ! So many cars are spacing themselves so far apart, others so tight one cannot get out of a parking spot.
It should all be metered parking anyway.
Thank goodness! It was a nightmare driving this area these past few months.
As a long term resident along the service road, I was surprised to read “This stretch is also known as Little Riverside Drive”, since I’ve never heard that used. But maybe I missed it? A quick Google search finds that it’s really not used at all: only by the brokers for 400 Riverside, which maybe wants to convey that they are not on a “busy” street? And twice by the Parks, when it was used more as a description, lower case L, than as a name. I think it’s just the Riverside Drive Service Road; let’s not let the brokers redefine our streets, as they have all segments of downtown.
Hah, funny about the brokers, and telling! I just call it the annex or service road.
I’ve been told (by either 311 or the local police precinct) that it’s officially just Riverside Drive with an island in between the main through lane and the building-side lane.
Agree, Alex. And many of us long term residents just call Riverside Drive “The Drive” and the road for carriage access to the doorways “the Service Road” Holdovers from a less commercial time.
Carriages? You must be a very long-term resident.
Yes, Jose! I am. Missed the carriage and lamp-lit days on the Drive, but I can so easily imagine them. Talk about a pooper scooper challenge. Been here on Riverside for 50 years.
Thank you, That’s wonderful to hear.
Hooray!! Long overdue and so glad it got done!
I see you Gale and raise you a few replaved streets.
— Shaun
Not to be “that guy”, but isn’t the headline somewhat redundant? Is there an Upper East stretch of Riverside Drive?
No, but RSD continues above the UWS…
Leave it to the DOT to do a half ass job after waiting over 15 years to get this paved. They did NOT do the whole street. Just a few bad stretches but there are still areas of broken roads. Really pathetic.
This is terrific and very heartening! Please address the pathways for the crosstown buses on the M66, M72, M79 and M86, and more. They are HORRIBLE, dangerous for elderly passengers or bus riders who do not have seats. The rides are appalling and worse than horse trails ; passengers are tossed around, often violently, like popcorn. Simone Biles herself would have trouble maintaining balance. WHY is this NEVER addressed ??! I have contacted all the pertinent agencies but nothing helps.
I’m now counting on YOU!
Your use of the past tense of REPAVE to REPAVED in your article of April 14th (UWS Stretch of Riverside Drive Repaved in Effort to Alleviate ‘Hazardous Conditions’) may have been broadly and wildly optimistic.
While I applaud council member Abreu for his effort, the reading of this headline and subheads would imply that the entire section between 97th and 109th has been repaved — entirely — It has not.
A quick check of the situation on “Little Riverside Drive” shows that only from 97th to 99th street has been repaved, and then, only three partial sections on approximately 60 by 12 feet further along the drive have been repaired (two sections between 99th and 100th, and another single section between 101st and 102nd streets).
Furthermore, while he may have informed the DOT that hazardous conditions existed all the way to 109th street, no repairs have been done to the remaining sections.
Perhaps, a little further walk up the hill to inspect the work might have revealed the inaccuracies.
There’s an additional problem that should be addressed, visible in the photo on the right. That intersection, and others along this stretch, should have a stop sign for the northbound car traffic. Pedestrians are endangered when drivers can build up excessive speed on this part of RSD, which I call the Annex.