About the Project

The Shore Road Bridge, also known as the Pelham Bridge, is an 865-foot long bridge that spans the Hutchinson River within Pelham Bay Park in the northeast corner of the Bronx. Shore Road connects to the Bronx and Pelham Parkway southwest of the bridge and continues northeast through Pelham Bay Park into Westchester County. The main bridge span over the navigation channel is a drawbridge with three concrete arch spans at each approach. The bridge carries approximately 17,000 vehicles per day on four travel lanes; pedestrians and bicycles share a narrow sidewalk. It is the busiest of all NYCDOT drawbridges.

The bridge was designed to standards in place over 110 years ago and cannot accommodate today's vehicle types and loads. Interim repair and rehabilitation has enabled the bridge to remain in service, but after 113 years it has reached the end of its useful life and its operating systems are not up to current code.

The Shore Road Bridge also has non-standard geometric and design features, including narrow lanes, no shoulders, and insufficient pedestrian and bicycle facilities.

In the closed position, the bridge provides only 13 feet of vertical clearance above the river, making it one of the most frequently opened movable bridges in New York City, with 821 marine openings in 2018. This traffic is virtually all commercial, consisting of barges carrying home heating oil, scrap metal and construction material.

Underneath the bridge, the navigation channel provides only 59 feet of horizontal clearance for the large vessels to pass through. This is the smallest horizontal clearance of all Hutchinson River movable bridges.