After months of speculation as to why the Squibb Park Bridge was closed for such an inordinate amount of time, details have finally emerged about its shutdown. A Gothamist story reveals that the Brooklyn Bridge Park Corporation has filed a lawsuit against the design firm behind the bridge, HNTB Corporation for the poor quality of work they did on the project.
The approximately 400-foot long bridge connects the Brooklyn Heights Promenade to the waterfront Park. The bridge opened in the Spring of 2013, and was forced to close just about 18 months later for being unstable in essence what was supposed to be a bouncy pedestrian walkway was shuttered for being just that: too bouncy.
Butit has been over a year since the bridge closed. And BBP is now taking the designer to task. In the lawsuit filed in the Supreme Court of New York, the Corporation says HNTB created a flawed design and then did not carry out the requisite repair work afterward.
"This action is brought to recover damages suffered by BBP as a result of defective design and contract administration services provided by HNTB in connection with the construction of Squibb Bridge Park," the opening section of the lawsuit reads.
BBP has replaced HNTB with the Arup Group to carry out the repair work on the bridge that is estimated to cost just over $500,000, according to the Brooklyn Paper.
The relatively small pedestrian bridge cost $5 million to build at the time of its construction, and BBP says it has incurred damages of no less than $3 million, according to the lawsuit. There's still no date on when the bridge will reopen.
· Brooklyn Bridge Park Is Suing Engineer Of Shoddy Squibb Bridge [Gothamist]
· BREAKING: Bridge Park suing Squibb Bridge creator [Brooklyn Paper]
· All The Squibb Park Bridge Coverage [Curbed]
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