A former concrete plant in The Bronx will be transformed into an urban oasis following a $10 million cleanup, officials announced yesterday.
The name of the 2.7-acre project along the western shore of the Bronx River in Crotona Park East? What else but Concrete Plant Park?
Remnants of the old Edgewater Concrete Plant, which closed in 1987, have been left intact to provide a gritty backdrop to the sliver of green near the Bruckner Expressway.
The park is scheduled to open in the fall and will eventually be part of a chain along the Bronx River, said Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe.
The city has 7,600 acres of contaminated brownfields, leading the mayor to call for a quicker cleanup program from Albany.
One feature of the program Bloomberg desperately wants to change would allow developers to do their own cleanups to qualify for a release of liability from the state.
As things now stand, the state won’t provide that release unless it also provides funds for the cleanup.