The long-awaited West Thames Pedestrian Bridge was supposed to start construction in November, but now it's unclear if that will happen. The Broadsheet reports that the two parties funding the project can't agree on who will pay for any overcharges?because, let's face it, there's no way this bridge will stay within the $27 million budget?that construction of the bridge creates. The Lower Manhattan Development Corporation allocated $20 million, while the Battery Park City Authority gave the remaining $7 million. Neither agency is authorized to spend more than those amounts, and the city's Economic Development Corporation does't want to pick up the bill. So now the LMDC doesn't want to spend any of its allocated $20M until there is an agreement about who is going to pay for the overcharges.
On top of that, a new architecture team is still needed for the bridge. SHoP's lenticular truss creation was too expensive, so it's been downsized. The first $2 million phase of the project will be put out to bid soon, and that should cover the initial engineering studies and preliminary architectural work.
UPDATE: Reps from SHoP contacted us to clarify that the hard cost of their bridge would have been $18 million, with soft costs coming in at $3 million, for a total estimate of $21 million. The $27 million figure was confirmed as the estimated cost of the project by the Mayor's office in February. So this raises the question: why was SHoP's design abandoned if it wasn't even going to be more expensive?
· The Thames, Is It a Changin'? [Broadsheet Daily]
· West Thames Pedestrian Bridge coverage [Curbed]
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