Flushing Bay walkway set to become reality By DONALD BERTRAND Daily News Staff Writer After languishing on the drawing boards for a dozen years, work on a 1.7-mile, treelined promenade along Flushing Bay in Flushing MeadowsCorona Park is finally scheduled to begin this spring. At a cost of $14 million, it is one of the largest projects undertaken in Queens by the Parks Department, said Commissioner Henry Stern. "We have been talking about this promenade for well over a decade," said Estelle Cooper, administrator for the park. Records at Community Board 7 in Flushing show that the board unanimously supported a plan for a promenade back on Feb. 23, 1987, said Board 7 district manager Marilyn Bitterman. The problem all this time, said Stern, is that there has never been money available to do the project. Finally, funding came from the city Department of Envi- - ronmental Protection as payback, of a sort, for Parks giving the DEP clearance to build a sewer overflow tank in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park. The $200 million DEP project is scheduled to be completed in early 2002, said DEP spokeswoman Cathy DelliCarpini. The 28-million gallon retention tank, located just off College Point Blvd. and Fowler Ave., will relieve the serious flooding the area has been endured for the past several decades. "Because they are building this giant tank underneath the ballfields in the park, we negotiated that they would do something for the community by building the Flushing Bay Promenade," said Stern. Not only will the retention tank halt most of the flooding in the area, but it will also help clean up Flushing Bay and the Flushing River, by halting the run-off of excess water from area sewers. Currently, every time there is a heavy rain, local sewer lines overflow. About 15 sewer lines end up discharging excess water and waste into the river and bay. The tank will store the water during a storm and then pump it to a sewage treatment plant. Once the underground tank is completed, the Parks Department will build ballfields on top of it. The promenade will stretch from a gas station near LaGuardia Airport on the Grand Central Parkway on the west to a Sanitation Department fa- FINE NE do A0 6 thin S% upe DIGGING DEEP: Crews carve cility on the east. "We plan to improve pedestrian access to the promenade by upgrading existing overpasses and entries, and by creating a clear system of pedestrian crosswalks and approaches to the promenade from the parking lots," said Stern. A formal entry to the promenade at the 27th Ave. pedestrian overpass near LaGuardia Airport will be marked by an overlook plaza with a flagpole, he said. 6 at 3 ETA B7N LOP space for giant sewer overflow tank. The paved walking surface of the promenade will range from 12 to 16 feet in width, Stern said. "It will have asphalt block paving and an ornamental railing with a curving profile. All columns along the pier will feature animal and plant basrelief," he added. About every 50 feet along the promenade, there will be a bench niche with cast iron World Fair style benches, and overlooks every few hundred feet. encitsool bile, 810,10 ups 1 A MARK CONIFACIO "There is a marina and boat traffic. It is a nice place to enjoy the wildlife and to watch the airplanes taking off from LaGuardia, said Stern. In addition, there will be two new boat launching ramps. Some 1,266 shade and flowering trees will be planted along the entire promenade. Shrubs will be used as a buffer along the parkway and a seven-foot-high fence will prohibit access to the Grand Central Parkway. DAILY NEWS 'Kepsinu † 6661 bafail
