A Green Boulevard for Manhattan's West Side: The Reconstruction of Route 9A by Leslie Peoples, ASLA The long-awaited reconstruction of Manhattan's Westside Highway, now known as Route 9A, represents the culmination of a process that brought unprecedented community and governmental cooperation to the design of a grand urban boulevard extending from Battery Park in lower Manhattan to 59th Street. The roadway will serve as a green edge along Manhattan's west side and will provide access to the future waterfront park along the Hudson River. The vision of the boulevard was to create a seamless design between the roadway and the future park-- creating a sense of a park with a boulevard within it, rather than adjacent to it. The boulevard runs north-south and incorporates a walkway, a 16-foot wide bike path, granite-paved park access areas and landscaped buffers along the roadway's western edge. A 19-foot wide raised landscaped median separates northbound and southbound traffic and provides pedestrian refuge areas. The eastern sidewalk incorporates wide corner sidewalk extensions and cobblestone tree planting strips which echo the design and scale of the adjacent streets. "The landscaped boulevard concept integrates the roadway within the scale and character of the surrounding neighborhoods. The design carefully balances urban design and landscape architecture with engineering to meet the needs of the New York State Department of Transportation (NYSDOT), city agencies and neighboring communities," explains Heather Sporn, the NYSDOT Landscape Architect for the project. The reconstruction of the Westside Highway-- necessitated after a truck fell through an elevated portion of the roadway in 1973-- has a decades-long history filled with challenges and controversy. The original proposal to reconstruct the highway, known as Westway, constituted an ambitious plan to fill in the river 1000 feet, place the roadway within the fill in a tunnel, and use the newly created land for development and recreation. This scheme raised concern about potential environmental impacts on the river. After ten years of deliberation over Westway, the City of New York hired Vollmer Associates in 1982 to evaluate an alternative design which would not encroach upon the river. As an alternate to Westway, Vollmer envisioned a neighborhood-oriented plan which would balance transportation needs with community concerns such as pedestrian access to the waterfront. When intense opposition finally resulted in the withdrawal of the Westway proposal in 1985, the firm's plan became the basis of a feasibility study examining a range of improvement options for the West Side Highway corridor. This critical study led to Vollmer's being awarded the preliminary design and Environmental Impact Statement contract in 1988. Following a five year open design process with ongoing community input, final plans for an at-grade, landscaped boulevard were approved. Upon approval of the urban boulevard design, the state created the unique role of Coordinating Consultant responsible for establishing corridor-wide design standards and managing the technical work of numerous design consultants for the remaining phases. This role, awarded to Vollmer Associates and its subconsultant Bechtel Corporation, is essential given that the Route 9A reconstruction is one of the largest highway engineering projects in the northeast, divided into six construction segments to be designed and constructed through separate contracts. In addition to Coordinating Consultant, Vollmer is the designer of the first construction segment. "Designing the first construction segment is a very significant job," states Tim Hinrichs, Vollmer partner and project director, "because the plans for this segment set the standard for the entire roadway. The features detailed here will be included in all the other segments to ensure continuity of the concept throughout the corridor." Besides continuity, coordinating the highway design with the proposed waterfront park required an uncommon approach. The concept of an urban boulevard, in contrast to a typical urban arterial, was driven by the need not only to move commuters and recreational users north-south along the corridor, but also to provide east-west access to pedestrians using the waterfront park. Coordination with the Hudson River Park Conservancy, the agency responsible for the development of the waterfront park, was essential in determining access locations to the park, and to achieving a complementary design vocabulary. Major north-south elements consist of a planted median, pedestrian walkway and bikeway, while east-west elements include signalized intersections and wide pedestrian refuge areas with protective bollards. The NYSDOT determined that early and continuous community participation would be critical to the success of the Route 9A design. "Community involvement became a thread that was carefully woven through each phase of this complex project. Open communication between community members, state and city agencies, and the design team was initiated at the outset. The creation of a Design Advisory Group assisted us in developing a consensus on design issues which were of concern to the three community boards along the 9A corridor; for example, disputed issues, such as the style of decorative poles, were resolved through the formation of task forces," explains Fred Correale, FASLA, Vollmer partner in charge of Landscape Architecture. The result of this successful process, in conjunction with the future waterfront park, is the concept of an elegant park with an internal boulevard, incorporating uniformity through decorative elements like light poles, paving and landscaping. The sixteen-foot wide bikeway, the widest designated bikepath in NYC, will be used by bicyclists and in-line skaters and will run continuously for 5.4 miles. Pedestrians have a separate walkway along the waterfront. Wide refuge areas allow for safe crossing of the roadway and the planted median from adjacent neighborhoods, will have landscape designs corresponding to their distinct characters. In addition to ongoing community input, NYSDOT decided that the first roadway segment to be constructed should be one that could be designed and built relatively quickly. While the Clarkson to Horatio Street segment met that criteria-- ground breaking took place on April 1, 1996 and construction is scheduled for completion by the end of 1997-- it does have a unique feature. Originally, Route 9A was planned to connect to all cross streets in the area. In response to community concerns about heavy traffic, the design was modified, however, to provide limited access to and from the southbound roadway and local Greenwich Village Streets, reflecting the state's sensitivity to the historic nature of the West Village with its narrow streets and smaller scaled buildings. The remaining five sections of Route 9A will be completely designed by the close of 1997, and under construction by 1998. Completion of the entire roadway from Battery Place to 59th Street is slated for 2001 at a total cost of $380 million. LASN All illustrations provided courtesy of Vollmer Associates LLP. The Route 9A urban boulevard reflects the development of new roadway construction features, and in some cases the creation of new design standards that allow for the design of an aesthetically pleasing roadway while meeting state and city safety criteria. Materials and details incorporated into the design of Route 9A not previously used by the state include low-profile barrier curbs, 19-foot wide medians, special lighting, granite block paving details, bollards, and a stone wall to accommodate grade changes along a portion of the bikeway. Rendering by Vladislav Yeliseyev. Section of the Reconstruction of Route 9A in the vicinity of Christopher Street. The raised medians, made possible by the low barrier curbs, were designed with safety and aesthetics in mind. While they discourage mid-block crossing by pedestrians and offer protection from traffic for those unable to cross the street in one-traffic cycle, the raised medians also enhance the boulevard concept by permitting planting of more and larger trees closer to the road. The height of the median protects the lush vegetation from vehicles and safeguards roadside plantings from salting, offering a suitable entrance to the waterfront park. The corridor's overall feeling of continuity is conveyed not only by lush landscaping but also by urban design elements consistently used throughout the corridor. Decorative light poles, for example, convey the history of the area as well as the elegance of the urban boulevard. Their design is repeated in high and low street poles for uniformity. Similarly, paving material, chosen for its durability and aesthetic quality, is repeated in the bikeway, walkway and sidewalks along the corridor. Rendering by Vladislav Yeliseyev. Aerial View of Route 9A on the west side of New York City, looking to the north. ???????(C)1996 Walter Dufrense, Photographer