What's Next for the Gowanus Canal's Decaying Union Street Bridge?

Pictured: the Union Street Bridge over the Gowanus Canal. Image via Google Maps

GOWANUS, BROOKLYN — The Union Street Bridge, which traverses the northernmost stretch of the Gowanus Canal, is on its last legs.

The movable bridge made its debut way back in 1905, and was damaged badly during Superstorm Sandy when seawater swamped its motors, according to the Department of Transportation (DOT).

At a meeting Thursday of Community Board 6's Transportation and Public Safety Committee, DOT staffers explained that the temporary replacement motors the bridge has been running on since the storm won't last.

The question now is what to replace them with.

New York's 24 movable bridges are the responsibility of Rahul Shah, the DOT's appropriately (and delightfully) titled Director of Movable Bridges.

At Thursday's meeting, Shah and DOT Division of Bridges staffer Joannene Kidder — a self-described "bridge nerd" — walked community leaders through a range of possible bridge designs.

Kidder said work on a new bridge could start by 2019.

DOT planners are currently soliciting community feedback before starting the design process. They also must submit their proposals to the U.S. Coast Guard for review, she said.

A movable bridge — one that can open or lift to allow boats to pass — would take between 30 and 39 months to construct, and would cost 2 to 3 times as much as a fixed bridge, Shah and Kidder explained.

An acceptable design would likely feature counterweights and machinery elevated one or two stories above the roadway, well out of the flood plain.

(At the meeting, the officials showed photos of similar bridges in other locations, but agency representatives declined to make them available to the media. For her part, Kidder said she didn't want to release pictures prematurely.)

A fixed bridge, by contrast, would take 24 to 30 months to construct and wouldn't require the costly maintenance of mechanical equipment.

It also wouldn't require a bridge operator to be at the ready. (Operators currently open the city's movable bridges on two hours notice, Shah said.)

The DOT showed Community Board 6 a mock-up of a fixed bridge with a single traffic lane in between two bike lanes, one running in each direction.

The Union Street Bridge isn't lifted often, Shah said. However, a permanently fixed span could block ships — and in the process, lessen the land value of tenants on the Gowanus.

Kidder said constructing a fixed bridge would therefore also involve a property assessment process that would end with payouts to those tenants.

The majority of community members at the meeting expressed support for a fixed bridge, seemingly on grounds of saving money.

However, others said they needed more information about each plan's variables before making up their minds.

Regarding next steps, Kidder said DOT might submit a fixed-bridge proposal to the Coast Guard simply to learn how that agency would view that kind of approach.

Editor's Note: This article has been tweaked for clarity.