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Broadway’s slow march toward becoming Manhattan’s most pedestrian-friendly boulevard is about to stretch a little farther uptown.
City officials are planning a major reconstruction of Broadway between 21st and 27th Streets that will transform six more blocks into largely car-free public space by 2031. The $156-million project is the latest phase of the city’s long-running “Broadway Vision,” an effort to prioritize walking and cycling along the diagonal corridor from Union Square toward Columbus Circle.
For years, this stretch around the Flatiron Building and NoMad has served as an urban experiment. Painted gravel plazas, plastic bollards and movable planters have carved out space for pedestrians and bikes while squeezing vehicle traffic into smaller lanes. The redesign proved popular, especially during the pandemic outdoor-dining boom. Now, the city is preparing to make those temporary changes permanent.
The upcoming overhaul will replace the painted layouts with full concrete plazas, widened sidewalks and protected bike lanes. Plans also call for raised crosswalks, curb extensions, new roadway alignments, security bollards and landscaping, along with seating, lighting and concession kiosks for food and drinks.
The goal, according to the city’s Department of Transportation, is to create a continuous pedestrian- and cyclist-priority corridor along Broadway, which links plazas and shared streets into a cohesive public realm.
The transformation won’t happen overnight, though. The project is still in the design phase, with construction expected to begin in 2028 and to continue for three years, ending in 2031. Roughly $89 million will go toward rebuilding the street itself, while another $67 million will fund upgrades to underground sewer and water infrastructure that runs beneath the corridor.
Once complete, the project will solidify years of gradual changes to the area. The first pedestrian plazas around the Flatiron Building appeared more than 15 years ago, in 2008. Over the following decade, additional shared streets and pop-up plazas expanded north and south, eventually creating the pedestrian zone that visitors know today.
Advocates say the plan is a major step forward—even if they wish it could happen faster. “It is amazing that the city is moving to make permanent the Broadway pedestrianization,” Annie Weinstock, director of programs at People-Oriented Cities, told Streetsblog. “It’s a great sign that this administration is getting serious about the permanence agenda.”
The Broadway makeover isn’t stopping at 27th Street either. Planners are already studying a future phase that could extend the pedestrian-focused design north toward Herald Square and eventually 33rd Street, though a timeline and cost estimate haven’t been announced yet.
If all goes according to plan, Broadway’s car-free experiment will keep creeping uptown—one plaza at a time.