Plans to smooth New York City’s biking experience moved forward last month when the Economic Development Commission awarded a roughly $163 million project to renovate a roughly half-mile stretch on Manhattan’s East Side.
The design-build project, called the East Side Greenway 14th Street Connector, was awarded to the Skanska USA Building Inc. joint venture. and Claire Weisz Architects LLP (aka WXY architecture + urban design). The other two candidates, announced in September 2025, were Walsh Construction Co II and Jacobs Civil Consultants Inc. and Weeks Marine Inc. and Kiewit Engineering Corp. The city declined to share the value of the other submitted proposals, but noted that each offered plans with a maximum value of approximately $163 million and that “the selection was made based on the best value,” says Denisse Moreno. construction
The announcement comes as the city announced plans to speed up bike and bus lane infrastructure projects and after separate tragedies in Boston and Chicago in which city transportation department employees advocating for bike safety infrastructure were killed while riding their bikes. Meanwhile, tthe Federal Highway Administration recently deleted bike lanes and speed cameras from your “Proven security countermeasures.“
The nearby construction site, a paved area between 17th and 12th Streets along the FDR Drive, is popular with bicyclists and pedestrians, although it narrows to four feet in width in some places. When complete, the connector will be a bridge wide enough to accommodate two-way traffic for both types of travel. Bike and pedestrian lanes will run continuously from East River Park, through the new construction, to the Captain Patrick J. Brown Walk and Stuyvesant Cove Park, Moreno says. Early designs call for benches, drinking and other amenities, but the DDC will hold community meetings to get more local input. Construction should begin in early 2028.
The project is one of 114 named in a report issued last year that identified locations to expand an access perimeter for bicycles, pedestrians and green spaces in the city. Commonly known as the Greenway, similar plans are what WXY had worked on with the EDC and the Department of Transportation in the past, says Layng Pew, WXY director and project design director.
The firm had also worked with Skanska to build two other waterfront leisure spaces in New York. “We found the 14th Street Connector project to be an excellent fit for our extensive experience in delivering resilient infrastructure projects in New York City,” says Theodora Diamantis, senior vice president and account manager for Skanska USA Building.
This particular greenway expansion location has an added complexity: The site runs next to a ConEdison generating station and a dock operated by the company. “The permit alone, given the marine conditions and ConEd operations, is unusual enough to build the team around,” says Pew.
Although the 14th Street Connector is not labeled as part of the East Side Coastal Resilience Project, the improvement site is encompassed by a playground and park that are part of the larger flood protection program. When the new higher elevation of East River Park is complete, it will provide the proper foundation for the southern end of the connector. “The park being built under [the East Side Coastal Resiliency project] it’s a major public investment, and access is what determines whether people really get its full value,” says Pew. “Our job is to make sure coming from the north has the same feel as the rest of the park.”
