When the L Train Shuts Down, Will the Williamsburg Bridge Come to the Rescue?

NEW YORK — The countdown has begun — in April, a major piece of New York City’s subway system will stop running. When that happens, 225,000 riders of the L line must find another way to travel between Manhattan and Brooklyn every day.

Hello, Williamsburg Bridge.

The century-old suspension bridge across the East River has emerged as the linchpin in the city’s efforts to come up with L alternatives once the line stops operating in Manhattan. The multipurpose span carries eight lanes of traffic; pedestrian and bike paths; and the J, M and Z lines. All will be pressed into service.

Half the displaced L riders are expected to turn to this one crossing alone, according to the latest projections. That means at least 110,000 more bodies — more than the entire population of Boulder, Colorado — piling onto a bridge that is already used by more than 270,000 people a day.

“It’s a workhorse, if not a savior,” said Danny Pearlstein, a spokesman for the Riders Alliance, an advocacy group for transit riders.

Is the Williamsburg Bridge up to the challenge?

The Williamsburg Bridge is the closest crossing to the L line, which travels along the Canarsie Tunnel under the East River. Beginning April 27, the tunnel is scheduled to close for 15 months to repair damage caused by Hurricane Sandy.

About 72,000 L riders — the single largest group — are expected to switch to the J, M and Z, increasing ridership on those lines from 165,000 now. To carry all the extra riders, trains will make 78 more round trips each weekday (28 more on Saturdays, and 37 on Sundays).

New, temporary bus service is coming to the bridge, replacing the limited B39 bus route that carries only about 240 riders per weekday. Look for the aptly named L1, L2, L3 and L4 buses. Currently, 105,000 vehicles a day pack the bridge’s narrow roadway. Soon 80 buses per hour, in each direction, will be dispatched over the bridge to carry another 38,000 L riders.

Cycling on the bridge’s two-way bike path — already the city’s busiest bicycle bridge crossing with 7,300 trips per day — is expected to double, or even triple.

Brandon Francis, 21, a college student who lives in Williamsburg, is not waiting. He has already traded in his L commute for cycling across the bridge. “I’m trying to prepare,” he said. “It’s going to get a lot more crowded.”

Newer and more reliable subway cars are being rolled out. Signals on the bridge are being tested and repaired so trains can run at maximum speed. About 19,000 feet of track and 10 switches and signals are being replaced along the lines.

At J, M, Z subway stations at either end of the bridge, long-shuttered stairs are being reopened, new stairs are being built, and platforms and turnstiles are being expanded to move people and trains in and out of stations more quickly. Transit officials are looking to shift where trains stop to pick up riders to wider areas on the platforms with more room for waiting passengers to reduce crowding.

To make way for the fleet of L buses, private vehicles will be required to have three or more passengers to use the bridge between 5 a.m. and 10 p.m. every day. That will apply to taxis, Ubers and Lyfts as well.

Police officers will be stationed on the Manhattan side to hand out tickets to drivers violating the high-occupancy-vehicle requirements.

“The Williamsburg Bridge is critical to our subway and bus plans,” said Andy Byford, president of New York City Transit, which operates the subway. “We’re doing everything we can to improve reliability on the rails and working closely with our city partners to get the infrastructure and enforcement we need to move our buses efficiently.”

There is no room on the bridge itself for dedicated bus lanes or a bigger bike path. So city transportation officials are squeezing in new bus and protected bike lanes on surrounding streets in Brooklyn and Manhattan to keep traffic flowing on and off the bridge. They recently opened a new two-way protected bike lane along Delancey Street on the Lower East Side.

Residents on both sides of the bridge are bracing for the influx headed their way. “There will be a spillover effect,” said Paul Pierre-Louis, 25, who lives in the East Village and goes running across the bridge. “It will make walking around here more chaotic.” David Crane, 56, a software engineer and member of the local community board for the Lower East Side, said that to avoid gridlock, the city will have to strictly enforce the high-occupancy-vehicle requirement. “We’re already choking on traffic congestion,” he said.

Crane and others also worry that exhaust fumes from all the L buses will worsen air pollution in an area where many suffer from asthma.

Transit officials said they were monitoring air quality at construction sites for L-related work and also along the new L bus routes in Manhattan and Brooklyn.

The Williamsburg Bridge, it could be said, was made for its new role. When it opened in 1903, it served as an overflow bridge to ease the traffic backups on its older and more glamorous neighbor, the Brooklyn Bridge.

What the new bridge lacked in beauty, it made up in usefulness. At 1 1/3 miles, it was the world’s longest suspension span at the time and the first with all-steel towers supporting its cables.

In no time, the bridge became a major transit corridor. Trains cruised down the center. Trolleys ran alongside. Horses, carriages, pedestrians, there was room for all. Later, concrete roadway replaced the trolley tracks, bringing cars and trucks.

The bridge opened the way for many Jewish families to migrate to Brooklyn from overcrowded tenements of the Lower East Side — earning a nickname as the “Jewish Passover.” It was also called the “Willy B” for short.

By the 1980s, the Williamsburg Bridge was rapidly crumbling from decades of neglect. Its cables were badly corroded. Chunks of concrete were falling off. It closed for emergency repairs in April 1988 after a large hole was found in a girder. Though part of the bridge reopened several weeks later, the work was just beginning. Then, in 1995, tragedy struck when J and M trains on the same track collided and killed a motorman, spurring widespread safety changes in the signaling system.

“The Williamsburg Bridge lives in infrastructure infamy,” recalled Pearlstein, adding that many people thought it would be cheaper to simply replace it.

But this symbol of urban decay was, improbably, reborn as a symbol of urban renewal. Piece by piece, its supports, roadways, walkways, and subway tracks were rebuilt at a cost of $1.2 billion. It is the only one of the four East River bridges to be completely retrofitted to withstand an earthquake.

“It was a 20-year-process to bring it back,” said Polly Trottenberg, the city’s transportation commissioner. “We like to say it’s in better condition now than when it was built.”

Though a century-old bridge always needs more work, Trottenberg said, a recent inspection revealed only a few problem spots requiring immediate repairs, in contrast to more than 1,000 spots in the late 1980s.

“Our 115-year-old bridge is ready for her star turn,” she said. Winthrop Han, 46, an architect in Williamsburg, said the bridge was “way underrated.” He walks across several times a week, admiring the exposed steel structure that reminds him of the Eiffel Tower.

Still, he is not so eager for the bridge to be discovered.

“It will be more crowded,” he said. “If it becomes like the subway, it won’t be relaxing. It will be awful.”