Posted on 03/05/2007 7:35:36 AM PST by End Times Sentinel
I HAVE SEEN the future, and in it Interstate 95 was given a burial and Columbus Boulevard was given new life.
The vision of a group of planners brought together to create a vision for the central Delaware River waterfront was unanimous.
The interstate has to go down if the city is to get the most beneficial use from the rebirth of the formerly industrial waterfront.
OK, I can hear the chorus of doubters:
"No way," you say. "It will never work," you say. "It's too expensive," you say.
But how will we know, if we don't try?
If Philly is ever to realize its potential to be recognized as one of the world's great cities, it has to think bigger.
Based on some of the preliminary ideas produced by the coterie of urban planners who spent this past weekend creating a master plan for developing the waterfront, Philly may soon be given a chance to exhibit some of the courage of Rocky Balboa, its beloved movie alter ego.
These folks - brought together by the University of Pennsylvania's Penn Praxis design group - are thinking out of the box big and for the long term.
"The key to the kingdom is I-95," said Richard Bartholomew, a principal with Wallace Roberts & Todd.
"The good news is that PennDOT is scheduled to rebuild I-95 and the section south of Vine Street, so this is a one-time opportunity to rethink and rebuild the corridor."
The planners' bold proposal would relocate I-95 to a tunnel running below Columbus Boulevard - aka Delaware Avenue - reducing the amount of land devoted to roadway from the current 400 feet to 200 feet, Bartholomew said.
Burying I-95 would create a whole new series of development parcels that could be used to fund a portion of the highway burial.
These are sites currently above the air rights over the interstate.
The idea also allows the reconnection of the city street grid to the waterfront and open views down to the newly uplifted boulevard and the river.
Some other ideas produced by the planners:
• Build a wide, paved walkway and bike path alongside the boulevard for seven miles between Allegheny and Oregon avenues. This would resolve the current issue of existing developments that were not required to provide space for pedestrian access to the water's edge.
• Use some portions of the I-95 roadway as a channel for storm-water runoff or underground park-and-ride facilities.
• Run a surface light-rail trolley line north and south along the river and connect it to the Market-Frankford line.
The complete list of recommendations can be found at www.planphilly.com
The group leaders emphasized that I-95 is key to the waterfront's future.
"We've inherited probably one of the worst highway conditions in the world," said Penn Praxis executive director Harris Steinberg. "We said today that we don't have to accept second-rate. We are going to be spending billions of dollars rebuilding it, so let's do it smart... let's do it with a vision that gets us to where we want to go."
Mayor Street hired Penn Praxis last October to organize the planning process and deliver the results in 12 months.
The University of Pennsylvania planners have worked closely with civic associations and residents of the waterfront neighborhoods that will be impacted by future development on the Delaware, including plans for two casinos.
Steinberg said planners spent little time on the casino issue. They see the two sites as "incremental to a much larger whole," so spent their time on bigger issues, he said.
These preliminary recommendations will be "distilled and vetted" in several more public meetings between now and November, when Penn Praxis delivers the final report to the mayor. In addition to the vision, the report must include an implementation strategy and an implementing body that can manage the process, Steinberg said.
The vision must be based in reality, but that doesn't mean it must be small.
To quote famed 19th-century architect Daniel Burnham: "Make no small plans. They have no magic to stir humanity's blood and probably themselves will not be realized."
Philadelphia is among the last of the big cities to confront the issue of how to redevelop waterfront districts that once were given over to industrial and maritime activities.
Other cities have created stunning developments that have become magnets for intense investment activity, visitors and residents.
Two examples: Chicago's Millennium Park, a $475 million, 24.6-acre park on Lake Michigan responsible for more than $1.4 billion in nearby residential development since 2000; and Battery Park City, a 92-acre site at the lower tip of Manhattan that has generated more than $1.7 billion in private development since construction started in 1982.
What a great idea Earni.
He skates around the key issue, but it's clear that his "rebirth" involves closing down the ports and opening casinos.
How's about dredging the river so we can get some really big container ships in here and get more jobs down the waterfront. Somehow, I think being a longshoreman might be a better career choice than being a valet at a casino.
Owl_Eagle
If what I just wrote made you sad or angry,
it was probably just a joke.
Big Dig Envy
Burying Philly would enhance the waterfront.
The upside is that anyone traveling north on I95 would not have to go through Philthadelphia, which needs to bury a lot more than its highways.
Burying the interstate along the waterfront makes sense. As you say, one question is, how many cities can afford to dump the ports and make their waterfronts into yuppie theme parks?
Also, how much of the tab are my federal taxes going to pick up, even though I don't expect ever to visit Philadelphia again?
maybe they could get the guys from Boston to design and build it too
Why not, the Feds probably have another $ 15B laying around to give to the currupt unions like they did here in Boston for the Big Dig.
You beat me by 25 seconds.
My thoughts exactly.
Maybe they can get the same crack team of people to build their tunnel.
but would it enhance my commute up and down I-95??? That is really the only thing of concern to me. Sorry.
How's about dredging the river so we can "throw in more dead mobsters and gang members."
Just burry philthadelphia, problem solved.
Having lived in Cmbridge MA for much of the past decade (have since moved) I like the idea of the freeway being buried underground, and the proposed rail link between North and South stations It was a dumb idea to cut Boston up like that with some ugly a$$ freeway when they built it in the 1950's. The question is, who should pay and how should it be managed.
Lets get Bechtel in there. They will do the same for Philly as they did for Boston.
Or Baghdad. I think to some degree they have to be blamed for screwing up so many billions of dollars worth of reconstruction contracts.
Besides... it's not his money that will pay for this stuff.
Most people traveling North on I-95 don't go anywhere near Philly. If you're coming through Delaware North toward NYC, you take the Del Mem Br over to the New Jersey Turnpike (which becomes I-95) rather than take I-95 on its roundabout spur towards Philly.
The really crappy contractor from the big dig that had more than their share of quality issues is out of business.
Is that Modern Continental or the other one.
I remember that Modern Continental under bid every other company to haul the dirt away. The other companies said that it was impossible for them to do it that cheaply.
After they won the bid they said "Oops, we under estimated how much it would cost" and they jacked up the price to haul the dirt to more than some of the other companies had bid.
MA is just dirty.
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