Construction Update: East Drive
June 23, 2014
The reconstruction of the Park Drive at the new LeFrak Center at Lakeside represents the final phase of Lakeside, the restoration of the southeast corner of Prospect Park. The reconstruction will improve pedestrian access to Lakeside, and reduce vehicular traffic on East Drive.
As part of Lakeside, a former parking lot was transformed into nearly an acre of new parkland. In order to accommodate vehicles during the ice skating season at the LeFrak Center, the road reconstruction project converts an existing paved area on Breeze Hill, which was historically a carriage concourse, into a parking area. The new lot is significantly smaller than the former lot, and retains the footprint of the existing paving, with the lawn restored. Vehicles will only have access to the lot during the winter ice skating season, which runs from mid-to-late October to mid-to-late March, and only during operating hours.
In addition, the road reconstruction project adds new plantings to the landscape, such as Red Twig Dogwood, Winterberry and Grey Goldenrod, and creates a vehicular entrance to the new parking lot from Lincoln Road, which eliminates vehicular traffic along the East Drive (the former lot was accessed from the Parkside Avenue entrance, which required travel along the Park Drive). As an added bonus, the project will alleviate flooding issues along the Drive by adding new leaching basins across from Lincoln Road.
The project is scheduled to be completed at the end of July.