Scaling the Span: High-Wire Repair Act on the Manhattan Bridge

Photo: Roger Bultot
Work on the Manhattan Bridge of late has provided fodder for the camera lens.
One reader sent us several images of construction crews scaling the span, in a high-wire repair act.

Photo: Roger Bultot
This latest round of action on the Manhattan Bridge – ongoing for three years – is part of neverending rehabilitation efforts that began way back in 1982. In fact, this is the fifteenth such project since then. The city identified certain “red flag issues” to ameliorate. Plans call for replacing corroded steel, replacing the rosettes ringing the four decorative globes (some of which are falling into the East River), installing new cornices, swapping out the deteriorated brackets (there are 10 on each tower), rehabbing trench drains on the roadway, and repairing the south walkway fence that is more than a century old.
The $75.9 million project is scheduled for completion in September 2021. We’ll see what happens…

Photo: Roger Bultot