New York City and local development corporation officials recently unveiled details of the Hunts Point Vision Plan, which will improve access to the waterfront on the South Bronx Peninsula, provide recreational opportunities, improve transportation safety, and enhance bike and pedestrian paths.

Spearheaded by the city’s Economic Development Corporation and two local organizations, Sustainable South Bronx and the Point Community Development Corporation, the plan aims to promote a competitive business environment and a sustainable community on the Hunts Point peninsula in three phases over ten years.

Once completed, the plan will have added 1.5 acres of publicly accessible open space, 8.5 mi of new “green streets,” and almost 12 acres of waterfront space. The main features include construction of elements such as green street landscaping, new bike paths, and a waterfront park with a fishing pier and kayak launch.

The first four projects of the plan’s short-term phase, drafted by Mathews Nielsen Landscape Architects of New York, will use outside design consultants. The projects will cost approximately $30 million with $24 million coming from the city’s capital program.

With the Intrepid aircraft carrier safely removed last fall, construction started on Pier 86 on Manhattan’s West Side waterfront.

The 36,000-ton Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum was moved to Bayonne, N.J., after the United States Navy and Army Corps of Engineers dredged 54,000 cu yd of mud under the ship, which sat in place for nearly 25 years. In the restoration, the entire pier will be demolished except for the original wood piles. The team will drive 360 epoxy-coated steel piles as deep as 180 ft to bedrock and will build a 1,000-ft-long concrete pier with four stair towers and two elevators to provide access to the ship when it returns. The $60 million project would finish in fall 2008.

The plan encompasses several types of diverse bridges, including those over rail lines, parkways, and highways.

The agency awarded three separate contracts last fall for architectural, structural engineering, and construction-related services. New York’s Guy Nordenson & Associates received a $3.3 million contract for five bridges; a joint venture of Boston’s Rosales Gottemoeller and Tectonic Engineering of Mountainville, N.Y., will design four bridges for a total of $3.8 million; and McLaren Engineering of West Nyack, N.Y., received a $4.1 million contract for six bridges.