New plans for Outer Harbor Parkway include fishing piers and bike path
By John F. Bonfatti NEWS STAFF REPORTER
Updated: 03/27/08 7:45 AM
The walk/bike path next to the parkway.
Sketch of the enhanced multi-use path.
Rep. Brian Higgins and Mayor Byron W. Brown detailed a new plan Wednesday for the long-discussed Outer Harbor Parkway, calling it the first step in removing the Skyway.
As the mayor and the congressman were describing a newer, greener parkway project, opponents, who have sued to stop the project, brought Canadian experts to town to help argue against retaining a key component of the plan — the elevated section of Route 5 along the waterfront.
Two of the opponents on the Common Council, President David A. Franczyk and President Pro Tempore Michael P. Kearns, said the new plan is a step in the right direction — but too small a step.
“As long as that elevated highway is still in place, it’s going to be an impediment to any kind of development,” said Kearns, whose South District includes a stretch of the shoreline.
The elevated highway carries four high-speed lanes of Route 5 traffic between the Southtowns and the Skyway.
It remains in the revised plan, although state Department of Transportation officials said its elevation — 20 feet above grade at points — would be cut in half in some places.
Higgins, pointing to construction work already under way at the Small Boat Harbor entrance off Fuhrmann Boulevard, insisted the $55 million project is going forward.
“As you can see today, we’re not fooling around,” said Higgins, adding that the project is fully funded and should be completed by the fall of 2010.
Brown called the new plan “another very powerful example of progress on Buffalo’s waterfront” and said that after 50 years of waterfront talk and planning, “now we’re seeing action.”
The revised plan makes several changes from the one the DOT presented last October, changes that Higgins, Brown and State DOT Commissioner Astrid C. Glynn said came following considerable input from a committee of local landscape experts and community leaders.
Higgins said he was “somewhat disappointed” with the October plan because of an overemphasis on “asphalt and concrete.”
The new plan adds more landscaping and will incorporate native vegetation along the bike/walk path that will roughly parallel the approximately 3x-mile-long parkway.
It also adds additional fishing piers at the Union Ship Canal and at Tifft Street and new trail head parking south of the Times Beach Nature Preserve, which would have direct access to the parkway via a bridge under Route 5.
Under both the old and new plan, Fuhrmann — now split into northbound and southbound roadbeds on either side of the elevated section of Route 5 — would be consolidated into one roadbed, separated by a tree-lined median, on the east side of Route 5.
But traffic engineers said the footprint for the new Fuhrmann, which will become the parkway, was reduced from 50 feet to 46 feet wide.
A new interpretative area, highlighting its industrial history with pavement stones and other design elements, will run north-south along the railroad track that crosses the existing southbound lane of Fuhrmann.
Higgins said the changes will add $5 million to $7 million to the project. He said the money for those changes is also in place, in part because the project came in under bid.
The project must go forward, or the funding will be jeopardized, said Higgins, who added that additional funding to build an at-grade bridge connecting the new parkway to downtown Buffalo will hinge on showing progress on this project.
Higgins said $2 million has already been allocated toward the environmental impact statement needed to build that bridge, the first of perhaps three at-grade crossings he would like to see.
A member of a coalition that is challenging the project in court said that fight will continue. Julie Barrett O’Neill, executive director of Buffalo Niagara Riverkeeper, said the revised blueprints do little to address opponents’ major objection.
“This only puts lipstick on what is still going to be two separate highways along the waterfront,“ she said.
Buffalo’s struggle to improve public access to its waterfront is similar to the challenges Toronto has faced. The similarities were highlighted Wednesday as a team of urban planners and architects from Ontario trekked to Buffalo to meet with city lawmakers.
Toronto recently dismantled part of the Gardiner East Expressway, a road some view as a barrier to Lake Ontario.
John van Nostrand, an architect who has worked on numerous development projects in Toronto, said municipalities like Buffalo with obstructed waterfronts must find ways to make them more accessible.
“There are barriers, and Route 5 is one of them,” he said.
News Staff Reporter Brian Meyer contributed to this report.
jbonfatti@buffnews.com
http://www.buffalonews.com/home/story/308763.html
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