Democrat and Chronicle from Rochester, New York • Page 27

DEMOCRAT AND CHRONICLE DemocratandChronicle.com SUNDAY, APRIL 4, 2010 7 Broad St. From Allen Street to Brown Street Crews are using different methods to fill and rebuild West Broad Street. Most of the route will be closed, the entire bridge deck and much of the center pier torn off, the tunnel filled and street rebuilt. But lacking a southbound detour from Allen Street to Brown Street, crews will tear off and fill one side at a time to maintain traffic. Here's how: tunnel deck: beams 1 1 Construction to complicate downtown event traffic Center pier A Canal I i i wall Lighting conduits I with dirt up to 8 feet in depth, Switch traffic to one side of bridge, deck on the other side.

Perform water install drainage and electrical wiring. Jj Finish fill behind retaining wall built from center pier. Install IP- Remove half of asnhltrnnrrptpAtppI finish Ml I Canal 1 wall Fil I both sides. Replace sub-base, install curb and do initial paving. to new side, remove tunnel deck on out portion of center pier to ensure base.

rebuild roadway. and pour sidewalks, topsoil and seed. Do road surface, stripe and open. of Install new sidewalks I fi I fl Remove itnwliimg struciiiial sfei'l 0 Re place sub-base arid paving I FinKh fill I the north side, the current westbound lanes, until 2011. The roadway will be milled, concrete will be repaired, and then a new waterproofing membrane and asphalt overlay will be put down.

But much of the work will be going on underneath the roadway. West Broad Street sits atop the abandoned Erie Canal-turned-subway, and workers will be busy in the tunnel, repairing or building new supports and patching the ceiling. North of West Main Street, the tunnel is being filled. Workers this construction season also will mill and resurface West Main from West Broad to Cascade Drive. All lanes should be open again by the end of October, and remain open through the winter months before construction resumes in the spring.

Next year, Brown Street over the canal bed will be removed. Brian Sharp Motorists might want to plan ahead or find an alternate route when heading to opening day April 17 at Frontier Field or to events at Blue Cross Arena at the War Memorial. The closure of all or part of West Broad Street north of West Main Street, as well as reduced traffic south to Exchange Boulevard, is likely to tie up traffic throughout the summer and early fall. Taking the Broad Street exit of eastbound Interstate 490 will draw motorists into the city on Allen Street. Although drivers will be able to cross West Broad and head over to Morrie Silver Way, they will not be able to travel north beginning Wednesday.

A few blocks east, West Broad beginning Monday will become one lane in either direction, down from two, and on-street parking will be eliminated. Crews will focus on the south side, the current eastbound lanes, this year, and likely will not tackle SOURCE: Department of Environmental Services Sides weigh in on plans for Broad St. aqueduct FROM PAGE IB strip away asphalt and rebuild or repair the underbelly of the deteriorating roadway. And on Wednesday, northbound traffic will be diverted between Allen and Brown streets. West Broad Street was built as a bridge, a expanse running the length of the abandoned canal-turned-subway bed through downtown.

The canal ran through downtown Rochester from 1823 until 1920, and the subway, from the mid-1920s to 1956. What to do with the cavernous space has been debated ever since. Much attention has focused on the glamorous but largely unfunded $25 million plan to rip the roadway off the historic 170-year-old aqueduct over the Genesee River, put water back in the canal and create a downtown plaza. The portion now under reconstruction has been the controversial piece a dirty and dusty but fully funded $17.5 million two-year project that, in stages, will either fill the channel or fix the road above. "There's going to be a whole length of time when there won't be anything happening on the surface it will all be happening underneath," said Mike Melino, resident engineer with FRA Engineering and Architecture.

"In reality, there is a lot going on underneath." By the time the project is completed in February 2012, the deserted and tired-looking border of downtown at West Main and West Broad should be vibrant again, with a landscaped, tree-lined boulevard serving as a gateway to downtown from the west. An area along the east side of West Broad, just south of the railroad bridge, will be filled in to create a new development site. A weeded lot on the northwest corner of West Broad and West Main will look more like a corner park, kitty-corner to Nothnagle Realty's new headquarters, opening in October. Across from the Nothnagle building, Josh Lofton stands ready for the city to begin seeking housing proposals this month. A new restaurant is also in the plans.

The area will be spruced up with historic-looking street lighting. And pedestrians will find historic markers for sites along the canal to the Susan B. Anthony neighborhood. "The job itself is to start to link and merge points west with Main Street, with the Cascade District, with the central business district," said Tom Hack, senior structural engineer for the city. "It's sort of knitting the fabric back together." Newnort FROM PAGE 3B but state officials said the site itself could be significant.

"There's a reasonable chance there might be ar-chaeologically sensitive areas there," said Dan Keefe, a spokesman for the office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation, mentioning Native American sites and historic resources from the 19th century. Keefe said the proposed housing project "would be further remove tunnel main work, about 3 feet USEES- DEM0CRATANDCHR0NICLE.COM Click on this story for a video i of the work. age, 12,000 to 15,000 vehicles per day. This is the fill portion of the project, which will extend to Brown Street, tearing out 1,200 feet of the bridge. The canal bed creates an 18-foot-deep cavern beneath West Broad.

Workers before tearing off the roadway first put down 6 feet or more of fill, cutting holes in the road and dumping dirt through because the tunnel below is too shallow to raise a dump truck. The partial fill was done to support the old canal walls that form the bridge abutments. For more than 15 years, critics have fought this fill, and the city has studied, delayed and studied more. Proponents of light rail have argued for reuse, others have argued for re-watering. But the city concluded that this portion, with steel supports rather than concrete, was so far gone it could not be saved.

One lane of the roadway has been closed since mid-2008 because of safety concerns. The city began weekly inspections of the area beneath West Main earlier this year and enlisted two engineering firms to evaluate the structure. "We've done so many Band-Aids on it," Hack said. "The Band-Aids now are peeling off. It's hard to keep them on." Getting ready The project requires 92,000 cubic yards, or 300,000 pounds, of fill a mix of dirt and crumbled concrete from the road.

Workers first are removing 1,200 steel beams supporting the road above. asked that to this day still have gone unanswered," said Cheri Evershed, a former Planning Board member, via e-mail. "I don't think anyone was opposed to the development of this property the problem is the density of this project, S) Switch traffic old side, tear consistent road i) Finish fill and JJ Excavate final paving of Final layer asphalt To learn more For more on the project, go to www.broadstreet corridor.com. Western gateway In the 1800s, the Erie Canal passed beneath seven lift bridges and two fixed bridges as it ran from the river to and under Brown Street. Water marks and hooks to tie up boats can be seen in the base of the old stone warehouse at Brown Street.

Parts of the structure date to 1828, and officials plan to place seismic monitors on it when workers tear out the old Brown Street bridge over the canal there next year. The West Main Street crossing was a lift bridge and, back then, downtown continued west from there. Today, downtown officials consider the intersection the edge of their district. "When we started looking downtown, we looked at several sites. This one was the farthest one west," said Nothnagle CEO Armand D'Alfonso.

The real estate company will bring more than 70 employees downtown and be a regular stop for 900 agents and 100 vendors. D'Alfonso refers to the company's future home as "the anchor building for the western gateway." And, it may seem a small detail, but he notes that holiday decorations will be extended all the way to his property this year instead of stopping at North Plymouth Avenue. "We really wanted to be part of this downtown re-vitalization, when we saw what they were doing and what we could add," D'Alfonso said. Barricades went up in February closing West Broad between West Main and Allen streets, a section that carries, on aver- disturbance of the site." The DEC is still waiting for more details about issues such as grading, erosion control and site restoration as part of the permit-application process. Several residents have complained about the town review and approval, saying Planning Board members rammed the project through without thorough oversight.

RSM Development, the project developers, has reduced the number of housing units and made other concessions. "During public input, many questions were KEVIN M. SMITH graphics editor What steel is salvageable is being reused to build support towers beneath West Broad as it continues eastward toward the Genesee River. On a recent weekday, a cement truck was driven underneath the roadway to an area where floodlights illuminated the tunnel and the crew building footings for the new supports. The tunnel section that is being kept and repaired, from just below the Interstate -490 overpass, under West Main Street to Exchange Boulevard, is an area large enough to fit 270 parking spaces.

No future use has been determined, however. Traffic will be reduced but maintained throughout this portion, as the roadway above, carrying about 8,500 vehicles daily, is milled and resurfaced. Amid all this activity, or just outside it, Richard Maragh is getting ready to open his first restaurant. Maragh bought the old Zip's Disco Jazz Cafe, 204 W. Main last year and plans to open ROM Jr's Cafe by November serving breakfast, a buffet lunch, soups, sandwiches and Caribbean fare for dinner.

The opening is being timed to Nothnagle's opening and completion of the roadwork. Maragh, who lives in Gates and works downtown, said he chose the location because of Nothnagle's relocation, other nearby developments and the lack of downtown restaurants. But while Maragh and Nothnagle's D'Alfonso look forward to a new start, the work going on now is uncovering the past and provides a glimpse back in time. "I'm speculating in the spring a lot of people are going to want to go down Main Street," Hack said, "and just take a look." BDSHARPiSDemocratandChronicle.com this is a low-density area and this development is anything but low-density." Planning Board chairman Andrew Hintenach has said that the review process was thorough and fair. AMORREIUS DemocratandChronicle.com Freedom You Deserve yf L'' 1 DHJ would be better spent enhancing the transit system.

Governale launched RochesterSubway.com a year ago, to build interest in the streetcar system of the early- to mid-1900s. He recently started another group, Reconnec-tRochester, focused on bringing street cars back and supporting other alternative forms of transportation. "Rochester once had one of the largest streetcar networks in the country, and we sort of ripped that all up in favor of cars and buses, which is what the rest of the country was doing," said Governale, 31, who lives in Iron-dequoit and works in High Falls. Whatever is done with the rehabbed "tunnel," as most people refer to it, Governale said he hopes it maintains the historic aspect of being the canal and the region's first economic catalyst, while reflecting the history of the subway. "The story of the subway is one that everybody around here seems to have a connection to," he said, "or some sort of interest in." Brian Sharp Just when construction will reach the east end of West Broad Street and the aqueduct is anybody's guess.

But a $25 million plan to tear West Broad off the aqueduct, fill it with water and create public plazas on either end is the showcase that canal enthusiasts are waiting for. "What is staring us in the face is why not use the old aqueduct for the purpose it was built?" says Tom Grasso, president of the Canal Society of New York State. "We are in a battle for funds with other cities, other states, and we've got the big cannon let's shoot it." Grasso argues that the aqueduct project is key to grand plans that, proponents hope, could one day restore the canal with a connection to the river all the way to Susan B. Anthony neighborhood. The work going on now is "superficial things that can be changed once people see the water there once people see how beautiful it looks." Mike Governale, 31, thinks the aqueduct project is "overkill," would pre-empt a return of light rail and that the money I LAWN ROLLING Starting at JL till ii i i FREE LAWN ROLLING KnSq) (1 wseasonal lawn 11 mnuinn rnntrart i I EREE Seminars to understand your options.

Monday, April 12th at (5511 Core Aeration specials, Jk 1 SlOoffif 4A booked any fL-4J oiner service cleanups at the Elmwood Dental Restoration Implant Center. Space is limited. Call today! (585) 4614949 III iu m'V'-' 8 fl Training tool Local fire companies will continue the nighttime training at the Newport House that has been ongoing since November. Firefighters have been practicing survival skills and doing exercises such as cutting through the roof, said Ridge Culver Fire Chief Peter Hendler. There are no plans for firefighters to set the building ablaze, as has been rumored, Hendler teid.

flJaZT I.