Vannie foot bridge sees first funding

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This year’s state budget could be considered a bridge to realizing Van Cortlandt Park lovers’ dreams.

The document contains at least $3 million in funding for a pedestrian bridge over the Major Deegan Expressway. Activists have called on the city to construct a path uniting both halves of the park for years, though the Department of Environmental Protection long contended the funds weren’t available.

The president of the Friends of Van Cortlandt Park, a non-profit that helped organize a demonstration demanding the bridge last spring, welcomed the state’s intervention on the issue.

“The Friends of Van Cortlandt Park are thrilled that the bridge is now $4 million closer to being funded,” Christina Taylor said. 

Northwest Bronx Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz said he helped include $3 million for the bridge in the budget. He said state Sen. Jeff Klein is working on including an extra $1 million for the bridge. Mr. Klein declined to comment for this article. A press conference on the bridge is likely later this year.

The assemblyman estimated that the state funds will pay for about a quarter of the cost of the structure.

“People in Van Cortlandt Park should be able to easily go anywhere in Van Cortlandt Park,” he said. “The pedestrian bridge is something many of us feel was promised over 15 years ago. 

“I am very pleased that the Assembly is providing a good chunk of keeping that promise [though] the promise wasn’t made by the Assembly,” he concluded.

Calls for the structure date back to 1999, when the City Council approved the Department of Environmental Protection’s (DEP) Land Use Review Procedure (ULURP) application to locate the Croton Water Filtration Plant underneath Van Cortlandt Park’s Mosholu Golf Course.

Van Cortlandt Park, pedestrian bridge, Jeffrey Dinowitz, Jeff Klein, Christina Taylor, state budget, Shant Shahrigian
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