Riverside South (New York City) - Burying The West Side Highway

Burying The West Side Highway

One of the key components of Riverside South is relocating and burying the West Side Highway from approximately West 70th Street to West 61st Street to facilitate a southward expansion of Riverside Park.

The current viaduct is the only remaining section of the elevated highway which once extended to the southern tip of Manhattan. A portion of the elevated highway, which was mostly built in the 1920s and 1930s, collapsed in 1973 at 14th Street. Rather than repairing the antiquated road, the state closed it and planned to replace the viaduct (up to 34th Street) with an interstate highway in new landfill, known as Westway. Fifteen years later, after the failure of the Westway proposal, the state settled on an at-grade boulevard up to 57th Street flanked by a new Hudson River Park. Despite Robert Moses' proposal to relocate the highway to grade north of 59th Street to facilitate an extension of Riverside Park, the elevated section between 59th and 72nd streets remained.

The section between 59th and 72nd streets was a little thornier than the rest because, while the state owned an easement, neither the state nor the city owned the land. Acquiring the land to relocate the highway from the bankrupt Penn Central would have interfered with private development, which was seen at a time when the City was also near bankruptcy, as preferable to public financing (See History of New York City (1946-1977)).

Despite city approval in 1992 of the Riverside South plan, which would create a public park with private funds, opponents claim that any complementary public funding to bury the road would benefit only the developer and effectively waste the public funds used to renovate the viaduct in the 1990s. Opponents are further upset by the decision to close the West 72nd Street entrance ramp to the West Side Highway. However, in June, 2006, the developer began construction of a tunnel for the north-bound relocated highway between 61st and 65th streets, raising hopes that the highway will eventually be moved.