By Dennis Holt
Brooklyn Daily Eagle

BROOKLYN BRIDGE PARK — The Brooklyn Bridge Park Development Corp. (BBPDC) this summer will build a stairway. It won’t be a stairway to the stars, as in the old song, but a granite staircase from a 25-foot hill to be created on Pier 1 down to the new East River promenade.

It won’t be just an ordinary staircase; it will consist of granite blocks rescued from the old Roosevelt Island bridge, built in 1955 from Queens to Roosevelt (then Welfare) Island.

The park’s designer, Michael Van Valkenburgh, has designed a descending crescent, 15 feet at the top and about 100 feet at the bottom. As much as anything, this new addition to the park will serve as “super bleachers� for viewing the harbor and the Manhattan skyline (and even New Jersey).

The BBPDC released an up-to-date construction schedule this week covering the rest of this year into the spring of 2010, most of it related to Pier 1.

This winter, the park builder will haul in about 60,000 cubic yards of fill and rough grade and lay out paths and lawn areas. In the spring, the hill and staircase will be built, horticultural soil and fine grade will be brought in, the Pier 1 gatehouse built and a “tot lot� (consisting of a small children’s playground, trees and shrubs, ground covers and lawns) will be built.

Not yet firmly decided is a possible “early opening� of part of Pier 1 sometime in September.

For the rest of the year, needed utilities will be installed, paths will be laid out, a boat ramp will be installed, and decks of the southernmost part of the pier will be removed to expose some of the pilings.

(The original park plan suggested the exposed pilings should be at the northern end, but this has been revised.)

At the moment, the entire portion of the park on Pier 1 is expected to be opened in mid-2010.

Also during the year, some work on Pier 6 should be started, but a detailed schedule is still being worked on.

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