Cyclists trying to use the bike path that runs along Route 9A in Battery Park City will face a new physical barrier starting sometime in the next week. The Port Authority is closing the bike path from Liberty St. to Vesey St. to install two caissons for the pedestrian passageway that will connect the World Trade Center under Route 9A to the entrance of the World Financial Center.
The work may start as soon as Fri., Feb. 6 or as late as Fri., Feb. 13 and it will keep the bike path closed for about three weeks, said Clarelle DeGraffe, a program manager for the Port Authority. Cyclists will not be able to walk their bikes through the World Financial Center, the quickest detour route, because bikes are not allowed. Instead, they will have to go around the building to the esplanade.
Pedestrians will be able to traverse part of the path between Liberty and Vesey Sts. during the construction but not all of it, DeGraffe said.
Cyclists are supposed to dismount and walk their bikes along the Route 9A path, which is narrowed by construction and in some places is shared with pedestrians, but they rarely do so. Some Battery Park City residents are concerned that the physical detour will cause cyclists to bike through other places they are not allowed, like sidewalks and pedestrian spaces near the World Financial Center.
— Julie Shapiro
