It was a day of announcements Monday at the foot of West Ferry and Niagara streets, where local, state and federal officials have been investing to elevate that West Side corridor of Buffalo's waterfront. All the announcements were part of the $58 million transformation taking place along that corridor. The first was the re-opening of the Ferry Street Lift Bridge, which underwent an $8 million reconstruction. Assemblymember Sean Ryan (Buffalo-D) likened the investment to pilates.
"The new workout craze is pilates, right. Everybody wants to do pilates because it builds your core," Ryan said. "We recognize that if you don't have a strong core, you're prone to injuries and failures somewhere else and one of the cores of the West Side is Broderick Park, Bird Island Pier and the Ferry Street Lift Bridge."
Ryan said the neighborhoods are once again connected with the new bridge.
Broderick Park underwent its own $2.4 million upgrade. Niagara District Common Councilmember David Rivera noted the Park's historic significance to the region as a stop on the Underground Railroad's Freedom Trail.
"We learn to appreciate and to become very sensitive to that aspect of this land we're standing on today. It symbolizes something very important," Rivera said. "It also symbolizes something important to the anglers who come here every night who want to fish and to the people who come here to recreate."
Buffalo U.S. Army Corps of Engineers District Commander Adam Czekanski also announced a $500,000 study of the Broderick Park Sea Wall.
"Under the Corps hurricane and storm damage reduction program, the Buffalo District is able to execute this feasibility study that will ultimately provide the necessary protection to the city's waste water treatment facility and Broderick Park," Czekanski said.
Officials say the infrastructure investments are necessary to help turn the waterfront corridor into a tourism destination as attractive as other parts of the waterfront.
