BUFFALO, NY (WKBW) — The construction to turn Buffalo’s Ralph Wilson Park into a state-of-the-art park is well underway and a big component of the park, a new signature pedestrian bridge, is on its way.
The bridge was constructed in Italy and is now on its extensive journey to the Queen City on the Erie Canal.
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.
“It's a marvel that this bridge is coming down the Erie Canal,” remarked Katie Campos, executive director, Ralph Wilson Park Conservancy.
An expansive barge with the pedestrian bridge on board moved through the Waterford Locks Friday morning outside of Albany, catching the attention of on-lookers.
“Ralph Wilson Park? I’ll have to look it up,” declared a barge watcher.
“This is historic on so many levels, on the eve of the bicentennial of the Erie Canal. We're seeing something of this significance make its way to Buffalo, and as far as we can tell, we haven't had a bridge of this significance built in Buffalo since the 1920s, since the Peace Bridge connected the U.S. and Canada,” explained Campos.
Campos tells me the bridge's journey all started in Italy where it was constructed.
“They put out an RFP to manufacture it and one of the highest, the best returns they got was from Cimolai, in Italy, who is very well suited for this. Incredibly high quality, really nice precision cuts which is really important for the architectural significance of the architectural cutouts of this bridge,” noted Campos.
The bridge design was inspired by the community.
“The number one thing we heard from this community-driven vision process is that the community wanted better, safer access to Ralph Wilson Park,” replied Campos. “The community wanted better safer access to Ralph Wilson Park and so the result of that was this new pedestrian bridge.”
The bridge was shipped out from Italy in June and now the journey continues all along the Erie Canal and is due to arrive in Buffalo on July 16 – known as 7-1-6 Day.
“It’s going to be an architectural gem that is going to add to the beauty of Buffalo,” declared Campos.
A massive hoist, already on the park construction site, will be used to move the state-of-the-art bridge that will be installed in October.
“It's tall. It is wide. It is beautiful. It is welcoming. It’s accessible. It’s safe, so all those marks are checked,” responded Campos.
Construction crews will erect the new bridge while at the same time, dismantling the old pedestrian bridge.
“The highway will shut down for about 12 hours and that will be communicated widely by New York State, by local authorities. As you can imagine quite a few people will be impacted by that so we want to make sure as many people as possible know about that and then the new bridge will be lifted and put in place while the former pedestrian bridge is taken down all in the same night,” described Campos.
Campos tells me the new bridge will be a major connection of the city's lower West Side directly to our beautiful waterfront park.
Once this pedestrian bridge is installed it's guaranteed to provide more access for the entire community.
“And we're incredibly excited to celebrate with Buffalo,” commented Campos.
You can follow the journey of this new bridge along the Erie Canal on the Ralph Wilson Park Instagram page and website.
