New Ralph Wilson Park pedestrian bridge setting course for Buffalo this Friday

Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) - Construction at the new Ralph Wilson Centennial Park, formerly LaSalle Park, to completely transform the 99 acres of land there continues in the lower West Side of the City of Buffalo.

About two years into the construction process, the project is about to celebrate a significant milestone with the welcoming of the signature pedestrian bridge that will connect the lower West Side to Ralph Wilson Centennial Park.

"Through the Imagine LaSalle community-driven design process, the No. 1 priority we heard from our community was better, safer access to Ralph Wilson Park. That is what we're delivering, and we're excited to welcome the bridge that's making its way down the Erie Canal starting later this week," said Katie Campos, executive director of the Ralph Wilson Park Conservancy with WBEN.

Gilbane Construction has been managing the construction process throughout, and has been getting the park ready for the future erection of the pedestrian bridge. Campos says they started getting ready to put in the bridge this past December and into January.

"They started by putting in place the foundation, that meant putting these massive steel poles about 30 feet into the ground, into the bedrock. This is a 220-ton steel bridge, which will be over 300 tons once the walkways laid on it, so it requires quite a bit of foundation. It will be much longer, about 266 feet long, almost twice as long as the bridge that's in place now. Gilbane and the construction crews have been building the foundation to make sure this bridge can be put in place."

Right now, if you get a good glimpse while driving along the I-190, you may notice the concrete structures and steel elements that will serve as the base for the bridge, connecting the park to the community. Soon enough, Campos says you'll also start to see the beginning of two 30-foot hills forming on both sides of the highway.

"Those will be the accessible hills where you can walk up to the bridge, they're ADA accessible, lined with beautiful pathways. And once the bridge is delivered to the park, once it makes its way to the shore of Ralph Wilson Park on July 16, Gilbane will put it in place in the park, weld it together - that whole process takes about 6-to-8 weeks - and then they will move it across the park on their hull road, which they've been creating for just a few weeks now to withstand the pressure of this bridge," Campos explained.

The Ralph Wilson Park bridge has already been on quite the journey. According to Campos, it left from Italy on a cargo ship in mid-June and made it to the New York Harbor on June 22. From there, it has made its way up the Hudson River to right outside of Albany, where it has been loaded onto two barges in four sections. The barges will next travel the full length of the state across the Erie Canal starting July 5 and arriving 11 days later on the shore of Ralph Wilson Park.

Carver Companies is managing the whole process to make sure the bridge is safely transported through the Erie Canal.

"We are incredibly excited. This is certainly one of the most unique shipments to go through the Erie Canal," Campos said. "They've had a handful of large shipments, they're working really, really closely with us, they're really excited. The Erie Canal is already celebrating its 200th Bicentennial next year, so we're really excited to work with Canal Corp. and the Erie Canal Heritage Way to promote the Ralph Wilson Park bridge coming down the Erie Canal beginning on July 5."

There will also be some added significance with the barges arriving on July 16, also known as "716 Day" in the City of Buffalo. Campos adds the conservancy will be doing plenty to allow the community is able to see the massive bridge coming to the park.

"We're going to be sharing updates. People can log on to our social media, find out exactly where this bridge is and when. @RalphWilsonParkBridge on Instagram, and we're gonna be doing a bunch of fun activities to celebrate this historic moment for this bridge coming to Buffalo," she noted.

Campos says this will be quite the massive undertaking between the conservancy and the City of Buffalo to ensure the community knows when the bridge is going to be put in place. The plan right now is for crews to put the bridge in place during the first weekend of October, which will require the closure of the I-190 in both directions.

"It will be overnight to hopefully minimize any disruption, but the bridge will be put in place in early October," Campos said. "And then folks will be able to walk across it probably a year after that. We still have to do some finishing touches to support the deck of the bridge, to build the two hills on both sides of the bridge, to build pathways up, and to build part of the park that will be opened in Spring '26."

And while the new pedestrian bridge stretching over the I-190 will go up, the old pedestrian bridge currently in place will also come down at the same time.

"The plan right now is the Ralph Wilson Park bridge will be moved across the highway, lifted and installed on the foundations that you can see when you're driving across the I-190 now. And shortly thereafter, the same crews will remove the steel structure of the pedestrian bridge that's currently in place across the highway," Campos detailed.

While some people have expressed their desire for more of the park to open in some capacity, Campos says the conservancy is making the most of it with plenty of programming in the part of the park that's still open. With the complexity of this project, Campos anticipates the park to open in phases beginning in Spring 2026.

"At that point, we anticipate that we'll be able to walk over the bridge and use some of the fields in the area, that's towards the South end of the park," she said.

While the installation of the pedestrian bridge has been a major focus of this $110 million project, another main focus has been the part of the park along the Lake Erie shoreline.

"LaSalle Park, now Ralph Wilson Park, has been taking on a lot of water, it's been deteriorating over time. So the priority has been transforming the shoreline for structural resiliency, to protect the park against flooding, and also to rebuild the biohabitat that used to exist and that doesn't really exist there anymore. So the focus has been on the shoreline, that will remain the focus. Once that's complete, we'll be able to build out the remaining phases of the park so that it opens over the next few years," Campos said.

Take a look at the recent progress made with the construction of the new Ralph Wilson Centennial Park below: