This bathroom is totally backed up.<\/p>\n
An unassuming public comfort station<\/a> that was billed as a \u201cless expensive\u201d and quicker-to-install option is still dangling in limbo \u2014 four years after the city approved the project.<\/p>\n The modular, $3.5 million restroom has been trapped in the procurement stage, leaving Manhattan residents near Fort Washington Park in the lurch.<\/p>\n The bathrooms at Discovery Playground are years behind schedule. NYC Parks<\/p>\n \u201cThis bathroom has been in purgatory with design changes and legal reviews,\u201d Merritt Birnbaum, president and CEO of the Riverside Park Conservancy, told The City<\/a>.<\/p>\n The city Parks Department still estimates that the project will cost the same $3.5 million it was initially pitched as, but construction industry costs have climbed as much as 15% in the past six years, according to the report, published Monday.<\/p>\n \u201cConstruction costs are going up, and there\u2019s still no bathroom at this location,\u201d Birnbaum said.<\/p>\n The restroom at the park\u2019s Discovery Playground has been bogged down since the project was pitched to the community in 2022 as part of the Parks Dept.\u2019s \u201cBetter Bathrooms\u201d initiative aiming to build modular bathrooms throughout the city.<\/p>\n At the time, officials said it would be \u201cless expensive to build and can be installed more quickly and with less disruption\u201d than the typical brick bathrooms at Big Apple parks.<\/p>\n The bathroom\u2019s opening date was slated for March 2025, but the city has yet to secure proper permitting for the red, yellow and orange station a year later \u2014 and still doesn\u2019t expect to start construction until 2027.<\/p>\n The comfort station would have been among the city\u2019s first modular restrooms, meaning it would be created at a factory in three pieces then transported and assembled at the park.<\/p>\n The city\u2019s first modular bathroom opened at Lopez Playground in Staten Island last year. Michael McWeeney<\/p>\n