David Handschuh/New York Daily News
The step streets at 215th St. and Broadway are about to be repaired by the City. Community Board 12 okayed the $ 4.5 million plan from the city Dept. of Design and Construction on Tuesday.
Fed-u p Inwood residents have been waiting since 1999 for the city to rebuild the neighborhoods crumbling 215th Street Steps but the $ 4.5 million project is finally set to begin next January.
After 13 unlucky years of delays, false starts and dashed hopes, the once-majestic passageway rising from Broadway to Park Terrace East will be returned to its past grandeur by the spring of 2014, officials told the Daily News.
Etched into the so-called Step Street a block-long staircase built on a slope too steep for a road will be inspirational inscriptions like this one from the Rev. Martin Luther King:
Faith is taking the first step even when you dont see the whole staircase.
Ever since the 1970s, neighbors have lamented the decay of the sweeping stairway, which is now marred by wobbly rails, cracked steps, busted lamps and disintegrating landings that flood whenever it rains.
Its an accident waiting to happen, said Edna Reilly, an 80-something, r etired teacher who lives two blocks away. I must have tripped on those broken stairs a dozen times.
State Sen. Adriano Espaillat, who also lives atop the Steps and is vying for Rep. Charles Rangels Harlem seat, was in his second term as a state assemblyman back in 1999 when he secured $ 100,000 in seed money to reconstruct the stairway.
Its a pet peeve of mine that its dragged on for far, far too long, he said. But finally, theres some good news.
Built around 1910 and beloved as one of Inwoods most iconic landmarks, the tree-lined corridor, which is about 200 feet long and 35 feet wide, often attracts exercise buffs to climb its dual 120-step staircases.
These are historic steps that people have traveled for many generations, said Pamela Palanque, the chairwoman of Community Board 12, which okayed the plans on Tuesday. But they ice up and are dangerous in snow, theyve been in shambles for years and the wobbly guard rails make it very tough on seniors.
While repairs are long overdue, the citys Dept. of Design and Construction has unveiled an exciting new design that maintains the Steps historic character, Palanque said.
DDC took on the project in 2008, and while partial funding was in place since 1999, the project was pushed back until the rest of the cash could be locked in from city, state and federal sources.
Officials say the cracked, deteriorating stairs will be demolished and replaced with two parallel, nine-foot-wide concrete stairways separated by green, planted zones in the center. The Community Board nixed an earlier design scheme, in 2010, because it failed to maintain the original dual staircase design.
Railings, benches, planters, lighting, drainage systems and stone channels for bicycles will be added, and two historic lampposts with glass-globe lanterns and wrought-iron pedestals will be moved and rehabilitated, DDC spokesman Joe Soldevere said.
Work will sta rt in January 2013 with full pedestrian access throughout the 16-month construction and the project will be completed by May of 2014, officials say.
dfeiden@nydailynews.com
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