CLEVELAND, Ohio -- A restored pedestrian tunnel linking a West Side neighborhood with Edgewater Park will open July 2, well over estimated cost and almost two years past its scheduled opening.
 
The West 76th Street tunnel -- actually two tunnels, running beneath a busy railroad line and the West Shoreway -- is a brighter, wheelchair-accessible improvement to the dank, foreboding underpass that closed in late summer of 2010.
 
The opening is much anticipated.
 
"The neighborhood is ready to embrace it," said John McGovern, who lives on West 74th Street in the Detroit-Shoreway neighborhood. "People are very excited."
 
The Ohio Department of Transportation managed the work, along with restoring another pedestrian tunnel beneath Clifton Boulevard, near Lake Avenue. That tunnel opened last August.
 
Work on the two tunnels is part of a larger effort by the city and ODOT to improve lakefront access for West Side neighborhoods. They're cut off from Edgewater Park by the West Shoreway.
 
ODOT bid out a $3 million contract for restoring the two tunnels. They closed in late summer 2010 and were to reopen about a year later, said ODOT spokeswoman Amanda Lee.
 
 
View full size
 
But unexpected soil conditions vexed contractors at the West 76th Street tunnel, delaying work at both sites, Lee said.
 
"The original (soil) testing didn't reveal the issues," Lee said.
 
The soil had a high water content, she said. Steel pilings driven into the hillside, which slopes down to the park, began to warp and eventually had to be removed.
 
ODOT rebid the job for a new kind of retaining wall. The two-tunnel project grew to $6 million, Lee said.
 
Both tunnels have new lighting and landscaping.
 
The West 76th underpass features a switchback trail between the rail lines and Shoreway, to make the drop in elevation easier to handle for park goers.
 
The city and Cuyahoga Arts and Culture, a countywide arts-funding group, kicked in money on the project.
 
An artistic rendering of a glacier surrounds the opening of the upper tunnel and can be seen by Shoreway drivers.
 
Artist and Cleveland native Mark Reigelman designed the work, a nod to the ice formations that carved out the Great Lakes thousands of years ago.
 
The West 76th tunnel, along with the construction of a traffic underpass at West 73rd Street, will enhance the nearby Battery Park housing development and the Detroit-Shoreway neighborhood, officials said.
 
Work on the underpass will start in July and is scheduled to finish in 2015. That project will cost $34 million, well past its original estimate of $19 million.
 
The West 76th tunnel is another step toward completing Mayor Frank Jackson's vision of a lakefront linked with residents, said City Hall spokeswoman Maureen Harper.
 
The tunnel "encourages physical activity and provides for public art,'' Harper said.
 
Jeff Ramsey, director of Detroit Shoreway Community Development Organization, said frustrated residents are glad to see pieces of the decade-old lakefront plan falling into place.
 
"In the truest sense, this will be a connection to the lakefront," Ramsey said of the West 76th tunnel.
 
Councilman Jay Westbrook said work on the tunnels went too long.
 
"I think it's fitting that the artwork is a glacier because it went at glacier speed," said Westbrook. "It's very welcome that it's done. Hopefully, future implementation of the Shoreway plan will move faster."
 
McGovern, the West 74th Street resident, said residents are stoked that Cleveland Metroparks has taken over Edgewater Park from the state. Upkeep is already improved, McGovern said.
 
Long-time residents are anxious about new foot traffic that the tunnel will draw to the neighborhood, McGovern said.
 
Any bad element will be outweighed by the good, McGovern believes.
 
"It think there will be lots of people in the neighborhood taking ownership of the tunnel," he said.

Original Article

PDF Download