UPPER EAST SIDE, NY — After years of repairs and closures, an eight-block section of the East River Esplanade has an official reopening timeline.
The East River Esplanade, between East 70th Street and East 78th Street, will reopen in phases from the end of March through this October, representatives from the Hospital for Special Surgery said at a Thursday meeting with Upper East Side’s Community Board 8.
Jack Wong, a project manager for HSS’s Esplanade renovations, told Community Board 8 that the stretch between East 70th Street and East 72nd Street will be opening back up for pedestrian use within the next two weeks, following a final walk-through with city officials scheduled for Tuesday.
No exact date for the reopening has been released yet, as it all depends on how the walk-through goes, Wong said.
“We have some good news to report here,” Wong said. “We are having a walk-through with the Parks Department on Tuesday next week to get final approvals to hopefully turn this over to the public in a week or two.”
Jack Wong presenting the plans for the Esplanade during a Community Board 8 meeting.
However, the stretch between East 70th and East 72nd streets will again close for two weeks this May, for final painting and paving, which can only happen once the weather is consistantly warm, Wong said.
The segment is expected to be fully finished and permanently reopened once that work is completed.
“I know many folks in the community have been asking, ‘When is this ramp going to be back open?’ Hence why we’re trying to turn it over as soon as possible, so you can at least enjoy it,” Wong said. “And then when we have this two-week shutdown, we’ll be able to turn it over once and for all.”
The construction efforts from HSS will continue further uptown along the Esplanade, all the way up to 78th Street through October, Wong said.
Once structural seawall repairs and sinkhole remediations are made and safety barriers are installed, the Esplanade between East 72nd Street and East 78th Street can be painted, paved, landscaped, and reopened, Wong said. As part of this work, the pedestrian ramp at East 78th Street will be closed to the public in July, Wong said.
The entire path within that corridor is expected to be fully reopened by the end of October.
Renovations to the rest of the Esplanade, divided between the Parks Department and the New York City Economic Development Corporation, are still underway.
For questions, email Miranda.Levingston@Patch.com.