Under the K Bridge Park Will Be Ready in Early July

The new park underneath the Kosciusko Bridge will be ready in July, Assembly Member Joe Lentol announced on Monday.

Under the K Bridge Park will open in an area of the city known for a major lack of green space and around the same time that New York City is poised enter Phase 3 in the reopening process following last winter’s cornonavirus shutdown.

A design unveiling held in June 2019 presented the plans from Canadian landscape architecture firm Public Work. The firm also designed The Bentway, a similar park underneath Toronto’s Gardiner Expressway.

The nearly seven-acres of space is under the management of North Brooklyn Parks Alliance and is intended to bring public arts programming and recreation along the shore of Newtown Creek, which is a Superfund site with a long history of industrial pollution.

A pedestrian and bike path known as “the arm” connects the park to the Kosciusko Bridge, which completed construction in 2019 after the original bridge was deemed unsafe and demolished.

 

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With work #UndertheK quickly wrapping up, we thought we’d look back at some monumental milestones. . This set of images is from the design unveiling event for Under the K Bridge Park back in June 2019. The design initiative was supported by New York State’s Greenpoint Community Environmental Benefits Fund @gcefund in partnership with the NYS Department of Transportation @nys_dot and hosted at the Dobbin St studio in #Greenpoint. The principal architects from Public Work were on hand to present. . . . ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ #parksareessential #greendesign #urbanplanning #PUBLICWORK #underthekbridgepark #TadeuszKościuszko #ElSpace #newtowncreek #parklife #nycparks #seeyourcity #ilovenewyork #memorymonday #TBT #nbkparks #northbrooklynparksalliance #nycparks #williamsburg #greenpoint #bushwick #brooklyn #nyc

A post shared by North Brooklyn Parks Alliance (@nbkparks) on May 15, 2020 at 3:13am PDT

Working with Governor Cuomo, Assemblyman Joe Lentol is credited for helping to secure the funding to make the park possible, expanding on Lentol’s legacy of championing green space in North Brooklyn.

“With the official start of summer here, we must work to allow safe and responsible access to open space for families, children, and individuals,” Lentol wrote in a social media post on Monday. “The COVID19 pandemic has shown that access to open space is crucial to the health and well-being of our community.”

A specific date has yet to be announced, but the park is expected to open in “early July,” according to Lentol.