BPCA Plans New Signs, Lights, and Traffic-Safety Measures, Plus Augmented Reality Telescopes
The Battery Park City Authority (BPCA) is planning streetscape improvements throughout the community in the second half of this year, including upgrades to wayfinding and signage, street design, cycling and pedestrian safety, lighting, public art, and parks.
The wayfinding and signage component of the project will be rolled out in conjunction with the North/West Battery Park City Resiliency Project, which is slated to begin in 2026 and continue for at least five years. The disruptions associated with this initiative will include prolonged closures of multiple public spaces, including the esplanade between Wagner Park and North Cove Marina. A network of new signs will advise pedestrians and cyclists of which routes remain available and recommend detours. In particular, signs will urge cyclists to remain on the Empire State Trail (adjacent to West Street).
Street design will be upgraded at intersections with devices such as bike boxes (dedicated spaces at traffic lights, where cyclists can wait in front of cars), median refuge islands (a raised area in the middle of a wide roadway, where pedestrians can pause while crossing lanes of traffic), curb extensions (extensions of the sidewalk into the roadway at intersections, which narrow and slow the flow of vehicular traffic), and raised crosswalks (speed bumps containing a pedestrian crossings).
The BPCA is planning to install 14 curb extensions (at every intersection along Battery Place, South End Avenue, and North End Avenue), six bike boxes (at the intersections of West Street with West Thames, Liberty, Vesey, Murray, Warren, and Chambers Streets), two median refuge islands (on West Thames Street, at West Street and Battery Place), and one raised crosswalk (at the intersection of North End Avenue and Chambers Street).
The Authority is planning to improve North End Park (grassy area between the lanes of North End Avenue, at Chambers Street) with expanded sidewalks, along with new seating, lighting, lawn equipment, and public art installations created in collaboration with students at the adjacent Stuyvesant High School.
Further south, the Murray Street Triangle (where Murray Street splits at North End Avenue, near Shake Shack) will evolve in several ways. The parking lanes on both sides will be absorbed into widened sidewalks, while Murray Street will become a two-way road on the north side of the park, as the other leg of Murray (on the south edge of the park) will be closed to through traffic and “pedestrianized,” with the inclusion of moveable street furniture. (This section of road cannot be closed to traffic entirely, because it is needed for trucks to access the loading dock of the Conrad Hilton Hotel, but it will effectively become a dead end, used only for freight.)
Two new “parklets” will be created near P.S./I.S. 276 and P.S. 89/I.S. 289, taking advantage of existing (but underutilized) public space (usually in the form of parking lanes) to provide room for outdoor recreation, leisure, study, and art.
Upgraded outdoor lighting will installed at both North End Park and the Murray Street Triangle, and the intersection of West and West Thames Streets. All three locations have been cited by residents as chronically under-illuminated.
Finally, as the esplanade closes for the North/West Battery Park City Resiliency Project, the BPCA plans to install a viewing platform alongside North Cove Marina (near the volleyball courts) that will serve as a temporary public space affording views into the construction site, and equipped with augmented reality-integrated telescopes that will provide information about the past, present, and future of the community.
The BPCA is still formulating a budget for this project, which will be paid for out of the overall funds allocated to its ongoing resiliency projects (currently estimated to cost $1.6 billion). Further details are expected be available after the next round of public input at a presentation to Community Board 1 in September.