Three-arch bridge design leads the pack
3/24/2004

NIAGARA-ON-THE-LAKE, Ont. - A span with three arches, each similar in height and length and together crossing the Niagara River above the bridge's deck, emerged as the favored design Tuesday among residents who sit on an advisory committee for the Peace Bridge expansion study.
Two designs of a two-tower, cable-stayed bridge received slightly fewer votes to finish second and third.

"I really like the drama of the cable-stayed bridges," said Barbara Palazzo of Pendleton, a member of the Bi-National Civic Advisory Committee for the Peace Bridge expansion project, among the three-dozen U.S. and Canadian members who voted at a meeting at Niagara College.

Still, the three designs are for a companion span to the Peace Bridge. Palazzo said that troubles her because "we're forced to design a bridge not because it looks good but because it doesn't make the other bridge look bad."

"I think the result would be a mediocre design - not a signature bridge," she said.

None of the other 32 designs came close to matching the kind of support generated by the three most-favored concepts. Each of the committee members had 15 votes they could use to support any of the bridge designs, with five votes being the most they could cast for any one design.

The three-arch design received 72 votes, and the two cable-stayed designs received 67 and 62 votes, respectively. They'll be further evaluated by the public at a workshop in April.

Tuesday's meeting was designed to winnow to 10 the number of concepts to be evaluated at the April workshop. The twin-span design initially approved by the Peace Bridge Authority in 1998, then abandoned later in the face of legal and public pressure, got 10 votes. The low level of support it received means it probably will not be considered any further.

Palazzo said the three-arch bridge design poses one potential problem, "because I'm a little concerned about having too many piers in the water."

Arlene White of Fort Erie, Ont., a consultant for the Ontario Ministry of Tourism and Recreation, said she voted for the three-arch design because it complements the 1927 Peace Bridge.

"I like the arches of the existing bridge," White said. "That's why I like the arches in the new design."

The construction of the three-arch bridge would cost about $100 million.

The two-tower cable-stayed designs are similar in appearance, but the height of the towers would differ.

One version would use twin pylons and each of the towers would be the same height. The easterly tower would be located on the west side of the Black Rock Canal and the westerly tower would align with one of the piers of the existing bridge about 120 meters from the western shore of the river.

The cables would connect to the outside edges of the roadways and run up the outside face of the towers.

Each tower would look like an inverted "Y."

The estimated construction cost is between $110 million and $120 million.

The other cable-stayed concept, an asymmetric design, also has two inverted Y-shaped towers, although the eastern tower would be significantly taller than the western tower.

Several members said they are troubled by the cost estimates of maintaining the existing bridge over 75 years, pegged by Peace Bridge consultants at $25 million to $30 million. That estimate does not include any substantial pier work. Jeff Belt, a New Millennium Group member, said "$70 million to $80 million would be my guess" for how much the maintenance costs would run.

"This would not stand up in a court of law," said former District Attorney Edward C. Cosgrove, now in private practice, about the cost estimates.

He called for an independent analysis of the cost projections. "I think they're presenting information that supports the view of the Peace Bridge Authority," Cosgrove said. "I don't know if the public can rely on these figures."

from the Buffalo News

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IMO- aren't they making too much of this bridge thing? Who care what it looks like as long at it suits its purpose of connecting America and Canada. First it was said about a single signature span, then there was talk of a twin of what we already have and now this... a three arch design.