improved park access

Little Hell Gate Inlet Boardwalk

In spring 2005, RISF opened the Park's new educational boardwalk across the Little Hell Gate Inlet, providing excellent visibility, interpretive signage, and drop-down points from which to view all upcoming salt marsh and native wildlife. This remarkable resource, funded by New York State Department of Transportation (DOT) CMAQ/TEA-21 with a match from Council Member Reed, hosts casual visitors as well as participants in RISF's free Randall's Island Kids (RIK) Nature environmental education programs, run in partnership with local public schools.

Wards Island Waterfront Pathway

RISF's plans for the Park include an island-wide waterfront pathway system, the first section of which was recently funded for construction through an OPRHP Bond Act grant and an EPF grant from the DOS Local Waterfront Revitalization Program. Using reclaimed shoreline parkland, the Wards Island Waterfront Pathway will create roughly a mile of pedestrian and bicycle trails along the western shoreline of Randall's Island Park, adjacent to and accessible from City neighborhoods notably lacking in parkland and safe, open spaces. The pathway, design of which was funded through a DOT CMAQ/TEA-21 grant with a match from Manhattan Borough President C. Virginia Fields, was constructed in 2005 to run along the western shore of the Island to link the 103rd Street footbridge to the south with the Inlet. In addition to active sports facilities, the trails will offer interpretive signage and increased access to the Park's fishing areas, wetlands and waterfront vistas, as well as to current and future recreational facilities on Randall's Island Park.

Hell Gate Pathway

The new Wards Island Waterfront Pathway connects to the Park's central spine, where the roadbed has just been reconstructed to provide lighting, signage and benches and to accommodate pedestrians and cyclists. Just adjacent runs the Hell Gate Bridge trestle; RISF received a DOT Transportation Enhancements Program (TEP) grant, matched locally by Borough President Fields, to design a pathway section running the length of the Park under this trestle and along the Hell Gate shoreline.

Ferry Service

For years, RISF and others have advocated for water-based transportation to the Island, as a particularly Park-appropriate link in an improved access system. As a result NY Waterway is now under contract to run East River Ferry Sevice for major events to and from a dock near the Park's Little Hell Gate Inlet.