page_title: West Side Highway
section_title: West Side Highway Replacement Project
hierarchical_section_title: West Side Highway / West Side Highway Replacement Project
caption_attribution_description: West Side Highway at 34th St by Jacob Javits Center
context_page_description: The West Side Highway is a 5.42-mile-long mostly surface section of New York State Route 9A that runs from West 72nd Street along the Hudson River to the southern tip of Manhattan in New York City. It replaced the West Side Elevated Highway, built between 1929 and 1951, which was shut down in 1973 due to neglect and lack of maintenance, and was dismantled by 1989. The term "West Side Highway" is often mistakenly used to include the roadway north of 72nd Street, which is properly known as the Henry Hudson Parkway.
  The current highway was complete by 2001, but required reconstruction after the September 11 attacks that year, when the collapse of the World Trade Center caused debris to fall onto the surrounding areas, damaging the highway. It uses the surface streets that existed before the elevated highway was built: West Street, Eleventh Avenue and Twelfth Avenue. A short section of 12th Avenue still runs between 125th and 138th Streets, under the Riverside Drive Viaduct. Eleventh Avenue is a separate street north of 22nd Street. The portion between West 42nd Street and Canal Street is part of the Lincoln Highway.
context_section_description: Following the end of the Westway project, there were debates on what to do about the rest of the highway. Vollmer Associates was contracted for the highway replacement project in September 1986. There were four alternatives: three at-grade options with a varying number of lanes and quality of roadway, and one option with grade-separated ramps over busy intersections. By November, a commission was set up to discuss the alternatives. Four days later, several sections of the highway were agreed on. It would be an elevated highway north of 49th Street; an at-grade roadway between 44th and 25th Streets, including a depressed northbound roadway from 32nd to 42nd Streets; a tunnel under a park between 20th and 25th Streets; an at-grade boulevard between 20th and Houston Streets; an at-grade road with a 3-lane elevated ramp between Houston and Harrison Streets; and a 9-lane boulevard with depressed ramps through Battery Park City. There would be 26 traffic lights. This proposal was assailed by mass-transit associations, environmental groups, and elected officials.
  In January 1987, the commission unanimously agreed to build the highway as a six-lane urban boulevard with a parkway-style median and decorative lightposts. There would be a 60 acres (24 ha) $100 million park on the highway's western periphery, the latter of which was criticized by Governor Mario Cuomo as being too expensive. Afterward, there were some delays caused by Cuomo's reluctance to prioritize the project. In the meantime, the old, abandoned highway was being used by squatters. One of the first options to be rejected in 1989 was the construction of a boulevard on landfill, which was the reason for Westway's cancellation. There were also proposals for "cove" developments alongside the future boulevard.
  Construction began in early 1996 on the West Side Highway project. The first of the project's seven segments—between Clarkson and Horatio streets in the Greenwich Village neighborhood—was completed in 1998.
  Construction of the West Side Highway Replacement Project was completed between the Battery and 59th Street in August 2001. The period between the 1973 collapse and the 1985 demise of Westway was a chaotic time for drivers as the original elevated highway was dismantled (finally in 1989) and traffic was rerouted to temporary highways.  The new highway permits trucks, which the old elevated did not.  Together with the northern Henry Hudson Parkway, it creates a leafy boulevard along the Hudson River from the northern tip to the southern tip of Manhattan.
caption: The least leafy portion of the new boulevard is the part by the midtown piers between 34th and 59th Street.  This shows the West Side Highway at the Jacob Javits Convention Center.  The bike path is in the foreground.
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