Park is ‘future of cities’

WILKES-BARRE – A state official who toured Luzerne County’s $30 million riverfront park project on Tuesday was impressed with the project’s progress and scope.

State Department of Conservation and Natural Resources Secretary Michael DiBerardinis said he has not seen a river project “this grand and this expansive” and said it was “the future of cities in America and of cities in Pennsylvania.”

The park, called River Common, is along the Susquehanna River in Wilkes-Barre and will feature two levee portal openings: one will lead to an amphitheater, the other to a river landing and fishing pier. Thousands of trees, flowers and shrubs will be planted in the stretch from the Dorothy Dickson Darte Center for the Performing Arts to the Luzerne County Courthouse. Project completion is expected in the spring.

Officials began the tour walking south from a construction trailer near the courthouse to the levee portal north of the Market Street Bridge that will provide street-level access to what will be a boat landing and fishing pier.

Concrete pavements have been laid along the top of the levee and are connected by bridges over the two portals. The banks of the levee are being graded, and concrete slabs have been laid for seating and staging areas on the west side of the levee wall.

“We’ve got this wonderful seating area that, if there’s a sculling event, (this could be) a viewing area,” Jim Brozena, director of the Luzerne County Flood Protection Authority, told DiBerardinis.

“This area behind you is going to be a quilt of concrete with pavers on it, and then grass areas with trees where we can hold festivals and those kinds of things. The Fine Arts Fiesta, which used to be squished down on Public Square, we can now expand out onto this,” Brozena said.

The tour group included about a dozen other officials including county Commissioner Steve Urban and Wilkes-Barre Chamber of Business and Industry President Todd Vonderheid.

DiBerardinis got a bit of a history lesson on the tour after he noted the lighting fixtures and eagle statues on the Market Street Bridge and asked Brozena about the structure.

“It was a Luzerne County bridge built in the 1920s by the same architectural firm that designed the New York Public Library,” Brozena said.

DiBerardinis was surprised to learn from Urban that Peregrine Falcons frequent the bridges and downtown area along the river.

Larry Newman, the chamber’s vice president of economic development, said the riverfront was once “the green space that was used by the citizens of the city for their common space.”

DiBerardinis said Gov. Ed Rendell “did some interesting lighting” under bridges in Philadelphia when he was mayor there. Brozena said plans for several levels of lighting are in the works.

As the group descended the levee stairs and entered Millennium Circle, Brozena pointed out sandstone slabs that workers have been affixing to the concrete wall. They were taken from the same quarry that provided the stone for construction of the Luzerne County Courthouse some 100 years ago, he said.

“I have not seen a river project this grand and this expansive,” DiBerardinis said. “They’ve done great work in Pittsburgh, they’ve done fabulous work in Philly with the Schuylkill, even Harrisburg’s work. But this is unique, in a very positive way. It’s also very dense and it has striking features all over.”

DiBerardinis said he was eager to take the tour because his department is “an investor” in the project, having awarded a $1.75 million grant and a smaller grant for a boat launch. But that’s not the only reason.

“We have a great interest in cities that are revitalizing themselves and understanding the role of conservation in that revitalization, and sort of getting back to the river, creating this wonderful connection to the outdoors, improving the landscape,” DiBerardinis said.

Clear 27°

Progress

State official says he likes riverfront project’s scope

Place Quick Ads