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Road could become part of riverfront park

Tuesday, October 29, 2002

By Tom Barnes, Post-Gazette Staff Writer

Mayor Tom Murphy says the 10th Street Bypass could be shut down permanently some day and turned into an extension of an existing park along the Allegheny riverfront.

Click picture to see graphic.

Short of that, he said yesterday, the city may just ban tractor-trailer trucks from the bypass, which is scheduled to reopen in mid-January.

Strip District businesses are eagerly awaiting the reopening of the bypass, because it will become a vital entry into the Strip when the 16th Street Bridge closes Monday for 10 months of repairs.

"It's something we'd like to look at long-term, once we're done with all the construction," Murphy said of plans to expand the cultural trust district park along the Allegheny. "It'd be nice to widen that park, as we're going to do on the Monongahela," where the parking wharf used to be.

Widening the Allegheny Riverfront Park "would really complete the original ideas for the extension of Point Park."

But, he added. closing the bypass "isn't feasible right now" because of the impending shutdown of the 16th Street Bridge.

He said he plans to meet sometime with officials of the Sports & Exhibition Authority, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania Department of Transportation and Strip District businesses to discuss the bypass closure.

One group that likes the idea is the Riverlife Task Force, a privately funded group of foundations, businesses and riverfront landowners.

In a related matter, sports authority Executive Director Stephen Leeper said yesterday he'd like to keep heavy trucks off the bypass .

Doing so, he said, would increase the safety of pedestrians going from the David L. Lawrence Convention Center across the bypass to reach the riverfront. He said it would also improve the aesthetics and security of the convention center building.

The 10th Street Bypass has been closed since February 2001 so the new convention center can be built. Its reopening has been pushed back several times, but Murphy now says the road should be open again by mid-January.

Reopening the bypass, he said, will relieve some of the traffic headaches to be caused by shutting the 16th Street Bridge. The bridge has been a main detour for trucks and other vehicles headed to the Strip while the 10th Street Bypass has been closed.

Murphy stressed that no final decisions have been made about a permanent closure of the 10th Street Bypass, but said it will be discussed later next year.

Leeper also mentioned another traffic wrinkle set to appear in January -- the portion of Penn Avenue from 10th Street to 11th Street, at the rear of the convention center, will be shut down for 60 days for reconstruction.

He said he didn't think keeping large trucks off the bypass -- starting late next year -- would hurt truck traffic. Once the 16th Street Bridge reopens in September, he said, trucks will again be able to use the Fort Duquesne Bridge and the North Shore Expressway to reach the 16th Street Bridge and get to the Strip District.

But Becky Rodgers, director of a community/business group called Neighbors in the Strip, said she didn't like the idea of shutting down the bypass to truck traffic or all traffic.

"It would be a problem," she said. "I don't know how they expect trucks to get around the Strip."

She noted that some Strip businesses, such as Consumer Produce Inc. at 21st and Smallman streets, are already having problems. She said Consumer has 231 trucks per day coming in or going out and needs the bypass and the 16th Street Bridge.

She said another firm, the wholesale operation of Pennsylvania Macaroni, has already moved to Carnegie because of difficulty negotiating entry and exit from the Strip with the bypass closed.

"A park is lovely, but should it come at the expense of travelers?" she said. "It's important to have ease of transportation if we want to keep businesses."

Leeper and Murphy promised to meet with Strip District leaders and merchants before any action is taken to shut down the bypass or ban trucks from using it.

"We are concerned about our customers in the Strip District, the major wholesale food producers," Murphy said. "We don't want to negatively impact on their business. We're going to listen to them."

Leeper said he wants to do "what is the best for the convention center and Downtown in the future, but let's do so in a manner that doesn't have a negative impact on the folks in the Strip."

Tom Barnes can be reached at tbarnes@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1548.