This page offers a counterclockwise description (starting at the Battery) of the greenway as it will be in 2018. It highlights the improvements that will take place before then.

From the Battery to East 37th Street no further improvements to the greenway are anticipated. At East 37th Street, as of 2012, the Con Edison plant will have been decommissioned and the land turned into a waterfront path and park, with connections to Glick Park and the UN esplanade. The greenway will then continue with no new improvements until the Harlem River, where major improvements are expected.

From East 125th to East 135th Street DOT construction will be complete and the land will be ceded to DPR, which will turn it into a park. In the park a greenway will run along the river and connect to the existing greenway from East 135th to East 139th Street through Harlem River Park.

From East 139th to East 145th Street the greenway will continue along the waterfront. At East 145th Street the waterfront is no longer public; it is leased to Esplanade Gardens Housing. The City is confident that by 2018 it will have negotiated the right to an easement from West 145th Street to West 151st Street so that the path will be able to abut the waterfront for the entire stretch from East 125th Street to West 151st Street. The path will be 12 feet wide and adjacent to the existing bulkhead. After Esplanade Gardens Housing, DPR has plans for the path to connect to the West 155th Street entrance ramp on the speedway, which gives access to the greenway at West 162nd Street. From here the path continues as it was until West 91st Street in Riverside Park.

From West 91st to West 83rd Street the greenway will run on a cantilevered shared-use path along the waterfront. Between West 89th and West 87th Street this will be connected to the Henry Hudson Parkway. DPR has partial funding for this but needs more for completion. From West 83rd Street to the Battery the path is in its permanent state.