Allegheny Riverfront gets Tiger II (federal DOT) planning grant (Pittsburgh: houses, neighborhoods)

[BrianTH]

See Page 6 of this document:

http://www.dot.gov/docs/tiger2planninggrantinfo.pdf (broken link)

The project will include the development of a plan to convert an existing six-mile stretch of rail right-of-way into a green riverfront rail and trail corridor extending from downtown Pittsburgh to the eastern edge of the city. An engineering study will determine how to best transform the corridor into a multi-modal transportation network that includes time-segregated passenger and freight rail operations and a parallel bicycle and pedestrian trail. The study will build on a recently completed community master plan, which includes strategies for housing and ecological restoration along the corridor.

As noted, this is building on the Allegheny Riverfront Vision project, and I believe the time-segregated passenger rail operation in question is the Allegheny Valley Railroad commuter rail proposal. This commuter rail idea has long been talked about with little coming of it, but strangely enough it seems to actually be making progress this time, and I would take this grant to be an implied preliminary endorsement from the feds.

[nuwaver88]

Pittsburgh has done put many pieces of the puzzle in place over the last sixty years to shed itself of it's grimy image. It started at the Point and spread throughout Downtown, across the river to the North Shore and to the South side and other neighborhoods.
One area where we see the old Pittsburgh is the Allegheny Riverfront. Granted, there are some nice things on the Allegheny within city limits, especially near Downtown. There is also Washington's Landing and that nice little island with Pittsburgh Rowing Association.
However, we cannot hide that six mile stretch from the Convention Center to the 62nd Street Bridge. The location of riverfront is too prominent and the stretch too long. If we can put into place this very large piece of the puzzle by getting rid of most of the factories and warehouses along the water, and replacing them with housing and recreation, the transformation of Pittsburgh would be mostly complete, and our ever improving image will go off of the charts. I see this taking twenty to thirty years for major changes to be seen from across the way from Route 28. Of course, if the economy improves, and outside investment, both domestic and foriegn companies become enthusiastic about Pittsburgh, it could happen in ten or so. Those are a lot of ifs, but other cities have boomed in such a fashion, why not us?

[BrianTH]

I think if the economy recovers, we could see at least a good start on redeveloping this area in the next ten years. But I agree the whole thing is a project several decades in the making--which is fine, because I think taking time to do these things can often result in a better overall mix of architecture and design.