Thurs., June 4 – Wed., June 10
ALTERNATE SIDE PARKING RULES ARE IN EFFECT ALL WEEK
River-lock strikes Lower Manhattan once again with closures at the Hudson and East River crossings!
In the Holland Tunnel, one New York-bound and one New Jersey-bound tube will close 11 p.m. to 5 a.m. Thursday and Friday nights. Expect delays at the neighboring bridges — the Brooklyn and Manhattan namely.
Another Thursday night of Hudson River tunnel trouble: in the Lincoln Tunnel, the New York-bound tube will close 11 p.m. Thursday to 5 a.m. Friday, as will one New York-bound lane in the Holland Tunnel. The Lincoln Tunnel closure will send drivers down to the Holland, which will be slow because of its own closure.
There’s a 33 consecutive hour closure of all Manhattan-bound traffic on the Brooklyn Bridge this weekend starting midnight Friday and ending 9 a.m. Sunday. During the closure, use the Manhattan or Williamsburg bridges as an alternative.
On West St./Route 9A one southbound lane will close from Vesey St. to West Thames St. 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Thursday and Friday.
Public schools are out on Thursday for a conference day, which will make for lighter a.m. commutes. Take note that they’ll be back on Friday, as the summer break doesn’t start until after June 26.
The Little Italy Pedestrian Mall will close Mulberry St. between Canal and Broome Sts. and Hester St. between Mott and Baxter Sts. 5:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. nightly through September.
The Eggrolls and Egg Creams Block Party will close Eldridge St. between Canal and Division Sts. 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday.
The Vesak Celebration will impact a number of streets in Lower Manhattan with closures 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday, including: Mott St. between Bayard St. and Chatham Sq., Chatham Sq. between Mott St. and East Broadway, East Broadway between Chatham Sq. and Market St., Market St. between East Broadway to Division St., Division St. between Market St. and Bowery, Bowery between Division and Bayard Sts., and Bayard St. between Bowery and Mott St.
The Stone St. Pedestrian Mall will close Stone St. between Hanover Sq. and Broad St., and Mill Ln. between Stone and South William Sts. 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. each day.
From the mailbag:
Dear Transit Sam,
I live very close to the Manhattan Bridge approach at Canal and Bowery. For the last several weeks evening traffic has been crawling at the entrance to the upper roadway to Brooklyn with the lower roadway either closed or routed with traffic into Manhattan. What is the cause of all this evening traffic onto the Manhattan Bridge? There are intermittent traffic agents at the intersection.
Mitchell, Lower Manhattan
Dear Mitchell,
I’ve been doing a little detective work but I will need more info from you. Here are two construction jobs that may be related to what you are seeing: one, the Dept. of Transportation has been closing lanes on the inbound Brooklyn Bridge for construction and therefore has been opening more inbound lanes on the Manhattan Bridge’s lower level (by closing outbound traffic) from 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. So you may be seeing residual delays into the evening rush hour. Two, there are diversions on weekends from the inbound Brooklyn Bridge being closed. In fact, there’s a closure this weekend (see above).
What puzzles me is that you note this during the evening over “several weeks” and say that the lower level is closed or Manhattan bound. If this continues, at times other than the weekend closures, please take photos and note times and send them to Detective Schwartz (transitsam@downtownexpress.com). I’ll take it from there.
Transit Sam
Email your traffic, transit and parking questions to: transitsam@DowntownExpress.com. Follow me
@GridlockSam, and check GridlockSam.com for more traffic updates.
