BUFFALO, N.Y. (WKBW) — Tuesday marked a major milestone as the construction to turn Buffalo’s Ralph Wilson Park into a state-of-the-art park continues.
The first barge carrying pieces of the park's signature pedestrian bridge completed its long transatlantic journey and arrived on the shore of Ralph Wilson Park.
The bridge, fabricated by international firm Cimolai in a facility in Italy, left the manufacturing site an hour north of Venice in four pieces in early June and traveled across the Atlantic Ocean through the New York harbor.
Earlier this year, a group involved in the construction of the park visited Italy to get a progress update on the bridge. 7 News was given a first look at the video from that trip. You can watch our report below.
The bridge pieces were then loaded onto two barges near Albany and spent 12 days traveling across the Erie Canal before arriving at Ralph Wilson Park on Tuesday.
7 News spoke to Katie Campos, Executive Director of the Ralph Wilson Park Conservancy when the journey began and she said it was "historic" and a marvel that the bridge was going down the canal.
"It's incredible," Campos told 7 News as the bridge arrived on Tuesday. "It's an emotional experience. Even seeing the Seneca Chief with the bagpiper Marley Becker on top pulling into Buffalo with part of the Ralph Wilson Park bridge, this is a milestone for the park. This is a major moment for the city and the state. This has been awesome."
Campos says the design process for Ralph Wilson Park and the new bridge started in 2017 with community input.
"Their number one priority was better safer access to Ralph Wilson Park," said Campos, "They wanted a new bridge that added a major infrastructure to the transformation of this park, and this was the first major milestone to deliver on the community vision,"
The second barge carrying the final parts of the bridge will arrive in the coming days. The bridge pieces will then be unloaded and welded together over the next six to eight weeks before being installed over the I-190 sometime in October.
"If you don't know about Ralph Wilson Park, now you certainly will when the bridge goes up," said Campos, "I think hundreds, if not thousands of people learned about Ralph Wilson Park and what we are doing here by virtue of this bridge coming down the Erie Canal over the last 12 days."
Additional construction work will take place on the bridge before Ralph Wilson Park begins opening in phases in 2026.
