Footbridge users still left in the dark

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Despite promises to the contrary, lights on a pedestrian footbridge on West 235th Street and Henry Hudson Parkway are still out. Even worse, there’s no timetable for when they might come back on — and what really might be causing the delay.

Con Edison spokesman Robert McGee told The Press last month the electric utility would repair the lights. But now he said it’s up to the city transportation department — which shares responsibility for the lights with ConEd — to turn them back on.

ConEd started the work nearly two weeks ago, McGee said, developing a new electrical layout to clear an unidentified obstruction affecting multiple poles on the footbridge. Cable was installed March 29 and splicing was completed the next day.

ConEd told the transportation department March 30 the work was done, but it’s up to the government agency to actually turn the lights back on.

Nearly a week later, that hasn’t happened. And it won’t. At least for a little while.

“As it turns out, we have more to do on the restoration of lights in that area,” McGee said.

Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz is involved now, however, sending a letter this week to a ConEd executive calling the bridge outage “an emergency.”

“This issue is made all the more pressing given that there are several important holidays coming up next week,” Dinowitz said, pointing out Passover starting on Monday, as well as Christian holidays next week like Good Friday and Easter Sunday. It was imperative ConEd restore the lights immediately, especially since residents in that area first reported problems more than a month ago.

Residents like Steve Reich, who regularly use the footbridge, claim the lights have been off for as many as three months.

“It’s frustrating and I’m just angry that this has been going on,” he said. “What more can I say?”

Older people especially could trip and fall because some of the steps aren’t in the greatest shape, said another regular user and neighbor, Bruce Provinzano.

“It’s just a dangerous situation that just doesn’t seem to get corrected,” he said.

Both Provinzano and Reich said they weren’t surprised to find another layer of bureaucracy involved in getting the lights back on.

Michael Heller, who chairs Community Board 8’s traffic and transportation committee, said the light outage doesn’t just affect the 235th Street footbridge, but a neighboring overpass spanning between 232nd and 239th streets as well.

“There should be a bigger priority on lighting where it fails,” Heller said. “What makes this one particularly galling is that is also knocked out the footbridge. There are other sections of the Henry Hudson Parkway that have had lighting failure over the past couple of years, and it usually takes a while for it to be repaired. But this should be expedited because it’s also taking the footbridge lighting out.”

235th Street Overpass, Henry Hudson Parkway, Councilman Andrew Cohen, Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz, Steve Reich, Lisa Herndon

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