East Midtown Greenway promising new waterfront access to open Tuesday

Starting Tuesday, Upper East Side residents will have a new, long-awaited park space.

The East Midtown Greenway and Andrew Haswell Green Park will finally open to the public, creating new waterfront access from E. 53rd to E. 61st St. and bringing the city closer to its goal of a 32-mile loop of public land around the entirety of Manhattan.

The project’s completion couldn’t come soon enough for those who live and work by the site. On Monday, residents peered past the barriers to the site and peppered construction workers with questions about when the park would open.

The greenway, newly constructed over the East River, broke ground in 2019, but the pandemic pushed back the opening.

The 3-acre, nearly $200 million project provides a slice of green space for the Upper East Side and East Midtown, highly populated areas lacking significant park space.

“The opening of the East Midtown Greenway and Andrew Haswell Green Park represent another major step forward by the Adams administration to finish the long-envisioned Manhattan Greenway,” said Andrew Kimball, president and CEO of the New York City Economic Development Corp. “These remarkable capital projects will not only improve quality of life for New Yorkers but expand opportunities to commute by bike or foot while enjoying spectacular views on the East River.”

The project includes a park, pedestrian walkway, bike lane and pedestrian bridge. Visitors can enter at 53rd St. or 61st St. The undertaking was led by NYCEDC and the city’s Parks Department and built by contracting firm Skanska.

Andrew Haswell Green Park got a full renovation, with a new lawn, plus renovations to the ramp, lighting and seating.

It was planned with help from Community Board 8.

“The newly unveiled East Midtown Greenway and second phase of Andrew Haswell Green Park stand as a testament to the power of community and interagency collaboration for urban development,” Parks Commissioner Sue Donoghue said. “From the innovative pedestrian walkway to the revitalized landscaping with an artistic touch at Andrew Haswell Green Park, these transformative projects continue to further the city’s efforts toward completing the Manhattan Waterfront Greenway.”

It was completed on Sunday, with a measure to prevent vehicles from driving onto the park ground, said Michael Bradley of the Parks Department, the project administrator.

The greenway has been complete for more than a year, but residents had to wait until the park was ready so that emergency vehicles and pedestrians could enter and exit from both sides, Bradley said.

It will extend further south to 41st St. as part of a citywide initiative to expand greenways across the Big Apple.

Mayor Adams in October announced a plan to expand the city’s greenway corridors by adding 60 miles of waterfront public space in Queens, Brooklyn, the Bronx and Staten Island. In March, the city kicked off efforts to create a 7-mile corridor stretching from Randalls Island to Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx.

These implementation plans build upon DOT’s planning process to develop the Harlem River Greenway in the Bronx, announced by the Adams’ administration earlier this year.