There is now a rough cost and time schedule for removal of a major section of the Robert Moses Parkway in Niagara Falls. The price tag for the project is estimated to be $34 million.
The plan calls for removing the current road from downtown Niagara Falls to Findlay Drive while making improvements on parallel Whirlpool Street. The target date for completion is 2020.
That's the picture presented at a meeting Tuesday night in the city.
"It's intended to support economic resurgence of Niagara Falls by basically connecting the Falls, the Niagara Gorge and the city as a single place," said USA Niagara Development Project Manager Paul Tronolone.
"It's considered a single place. People look at the parkway as a dividing line, sort of a wall that divides the gorge access to the neighborhoods and we're looking to have that developed and considered as one place."
There are many more procedural steps even before a final design can be prepared and bid, but all three build alternatives are roughly the same, with details to be worked out. If all levels of government approve, the plan is for construction bids to come in late in 2017 and construction to start early in 2018, for two years of work.
