Plans to improve the Brooklyn Bridge and E. Houston St. got a boost this week with money from President Obama’s federal stimulus package.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced a slew of city transportation projects this week that will benefit from the $261 million in federal funding, including the two in Lower Manhattan.
The $382 million rehabilitation of the Brooklyn Bridge received $47.2 million from the stimulus. The city is starting to bid the contracts this spring, and work will continue through summer 2012 to widen the ramps leading to the bridge and to repaint it. The project already had full funding, so the new federal money frees up funds for additional city transportation projects.
One of those projects is the E. Houston St. reconstruction, which previously had no money but is now fully funded at $23.5 million. The city will bid contracts this summer to redo the roadway from the Bowery to F.D.R. Dr., adding bike lanes, widening medians, enlarging sidewalks and carving out two new plazas. The work will finish in the fall of 2011.
