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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
PR- 214-05
June 3, 2005

MAYOR BLOOMBERG ANNOUNCES PEDESTRIAN ACCESS BETWEEN MANHATTAN BEACH AND SHEEPSHEAD BAY TO BE RESTORED BY TUESDAY, JUNE 7

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg announced today that pedestrian access across Sheepshead Bay between the Manhattan Beach and Sheepshead Bay communities will be restored by Tuesday, June 7, 2005.  Temporary barges across the bay will replace the footbridge that was dislodged over the weekend when the bulkhead supporting it collapsed.  Using the footbridge to go between Manhattan Beach and Sheepshead Bay saves pedestrians about twenty minutes.

“Our priority in this situation has been to secure the area and provide alternative pedestrian access for the hundreds of residents who use the footbridge each day to get from Manhattan Beach to Sheepshead Bay and the nearby subway station,” said Mayor Bloomberg. “I want to commend the staff at EDC who have been working diligently to implement a viable solution to this unfortunate incident.”

Since last Saturday when the collapse was discovered, the City’s Economic Development Corporation (EDC) and its construction manager Turner Construction have been working on stabilization of the bulkhead and footbridge, removal of debris and design for a replacement bulkhead, under an emergency declaration from the Mayor’s Office of Emergency Management.  They will work over the weekend to install the necessary railings, lighting and gangways on the barges and move them from Homeport in Staten Island to Sheepshead Bay.  Once the barges are in place, EDC will work to reconstruct the failed bulkhead and repair the original footbridge, which will take about three months.

Under the citywide waterfront inspection program, EDC has inspected more than 14,300 linear feet of bulkhead in the past 18 months including bulkheads, numerous piers, wharves and other waterfront structures.  In the next year, EDC anticipates inspecting an additional 18,500 linear feet of waterfront citywide.







MEDIA CONTACT:


Edward Skyler/Jennifer Falk   (212) 788-2958



GENERAL CONTACT:

Michael Sherman/Janel Patterson   (Economic Development Corporation)
(212) 312-3523


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