Progress

August 18, 2008

On the waterfront: River set to be all the rage

Project developing riverfront into entertainment, recreation area.

WILKES-BARRE – A trip to Washington, D.C., to see cherry blossoms won’t be necessary next year if Luzerne County levee-keeper Jim Brozena’s plan goes as scheduled.

By May, Brozena, the executive director of the county Flood Protection Authority, hopes to cut the ribbon on a project that is transforming the levee along River Street from a large earthen wall that hides the river to a park with two gaping portals that will provide access to the waterfront, landscaped common areas full of flowering cherry trees and open-air performance spaces.

When completed, the riverfront park will feature:

• Two 60-foot-wide portals with flood gates that can be opened or closed as needed.

• A 750-person amphitheater.

• A garden on the county courthouse’s south lawn.

• A fishing pier.

• About a half-mile of landscaped walkways between the Market Street Bridge and Wilkes University’s Dorothy Dickson Darte Center.

And that’s only on the Susquehanna River’s eastern shore. On the other river bank, work is expected to be completed by next spring on an environmentally benign parking lot and improved boat launch in Nesbitt Park.

The project, known as the River Common, evolved as a way to merge the city’s historic greenway legacies with the inelegant realities of modern-day flood protection.

“It’s been an interesting ride over the last 20 years or so,” Brozena said.

A century ago, levees dotted the Wyoming Valley riverscape, but plenty of riverfront land remained open for parks and public areas. An architectural firm, famed for its design of New York City’s Central Park, designed Kirby and Nesbitt parks and included waterfront walkways, a reflecting pool and a caretaker’s cottage. Boating access was nearly ubiquitous. And the courthouse boasted a botanical garden.

However, disastrous floods and harrowing near-misses initiated large-scale and, eventually, federally backed efforts to create a contiguous levee system throughout much of the valley.

Completed in 2003, the most recent project was a success for the security of life and property but severed residents’ connection with the river. The massive earthen mounds isolated picturesque portions of the waterfront resources, including the Kirby Park river walkways, pool and cottage.

The river and greenways that adorn it still run through Wilkes-Barre, although they are generally out of sight and limited in access.

Concepts investigated

Brozena began formulating a plan to address that before all of the levees were even completed. He and other county officials gathered ideas by visiting waterfront revitalization projects in other cities, such as Charleston, S.C., Providence, R.I., and Hartford, Conn.

The Hartford project particularly intrigued Brozena for two reasons: The city’s situation mirrored Wilkes-Barre’s in that the post-industrial town had walled itself off from a river its residents had come to ignore, and Hartford’s solution had become a national model for what to do about it.

The Hartford riverfront revitalization is recognized for building coalitions with the region’s residents, creating accessible and attractive destinations and hosting popular events that give people a reason to use the facilities.

Many of Hartford’s strategies – from specific types of stone used for construction to an open-air amphitheater that can flood without sustaining damage – found their way into Luzerne County’s riverfront plan, which cost more than $30 million in engineering fees and construction.

A chunk of that – at least $6 million – went to punching two large holes into the levees and installing the new floodgates. Before that could be done, Brozena said, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers had to be convinced it was safe.

“We had to call 911 to resuscitate those guys,” Brozena joked, “because you don’t put holes in a perfectly good levee system.”

Among its other waterway-related duties, the Army Corps is tasked with overseeing all of the nation’s levees and usually dislikes tampering with an effective design.

However, portals have been added in places such as Augusta, Ga., and Richmond, Va., without diminishing the levees’ effectiveness, Brozena said. The design employed uses steel flood doors that slide into concrete encasements within the levee walls. When closed, the doors are higher than the flood stage the levee was designed for, and have rubber seals to minimize water seepage. Any water that leaks through is diverted to storm drains adjacent to the doors.

After being shown their effectiveness elsewhere, the Army Corps approved portals at Northampton Street and between the Market Street Bridge and the county courthouse.

Easy maintenance

The portals connect park elements on either side of the levee. Everything on the river side, including the amphitheater and a fishing pier, can be cleaned by simply hosing them down.

Attractions on the other side of the levee include a 75-foot-diameter circle containing a fountain, a garden on the courthouse’s south lawn, and landscaped walkways that connect the elements.

Project designs were detailed down to the landscaping to reflect local tastes. Replacements for the cherry trees that were cut down to make room for the project will be among the 200 trees planted. North of Market Street, the stone will be a buff color to match King’s College. Those to the south will be red to match Wilkes University.

Plenty of lighting will enhance safety, but also add a touch of style because patterns and colors will be adjustable to accommodate holiday festiveness or school spirit.

“We’ll be the Empire State Building of Northeastern Pennsylvania,” Brozena said.

While the River Common is the highlight of the renovation, the project’s other goal is to refurbish and connect the disjointed recreational areas, such as the trail system that extends in all directions throughout the region.

“They have a little piece here and a little piece there,” Brozena said. “We sort of become the river spine that connects all of those.”

Along with expansions in Nesbitt Park, including a two-bay launch for motorized boats, a smaller launch for human-power watercraft and a parking lot, the isolated riverfront of Kirby Park will be cleared of brush, have its pathways widened and receive a complement of lights to increase safety. Although all the locations haven’t been finalized, emergency call boxes will be installed, the first near the Kirby Park tennis courts.

The overgrown trails north of Nesbitt Park will be cleared and renovated up to the Route 309 bridge.

“We have an awful lot to do, and I don’t want to minimize that,” Brozena said.

River Street improvements

Other plans call for River Street to eventually become one lane in each direction with a raised median containing trees and plants dividing the lanes. Although he says that is a few years off, Brozena believes that will make the riverfront more inviting to pedestrians from downtown by reducing traffic on what has become but was never intended to be a major artery into the city.A trolley bus and a boathouse also are being considered, Brozena said. Although the county has no plans to add water-based attractions, he expected that private business will use the access for river tours or similar endeavors, such as nearby boat rentals.

“There are people already starting to take advantage on their own,” he said. “Down the road, this certainly can be a regional attraction.”

Brozena hopes that down the road his project changes the way the community interacts with its most prominent geographic feature.

“The neatest part of this is I see these retired people coming out and saying, ‘I never knew this was here,’” Brozena said. “It changed the perception of this community. They lived in fear of this river. I think that’s the triumph of this.”

Brozena hopes that down the road his project changes the way the community interacts with its most prominent geographic feature.

Rory Sweeney, a Times Leader staff writer, may be reached at 970-7418.

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