By JAMES FINK
Business First

After years of debates, public hearings, designs and controversy, it appears that plans to move ahead with a second Peace Bridge span are closer to becoming reality than at any time in the recent past.

Planners are cautiously optimistic that shortly after the new year, a revised Peace Bridge second-span design could be in hand and the final environmental review process can begin. Once that's in place, the crucial record of design from both Canadian and U.S. officials could be issued and construction, optimistically, might be able to start by late 2010, with a completion target of 2016.

Oficials admit that there are a lot of ifs attached to the whole process.

"It's been frustrating," said Andrew Rudnick, Buffalo Niagara Partnership president and CEO.

Expanding the Peace Bridge has been one of the Partnership's top regional development issues for nearly a decade. The project has been subject to more stops and starts than any other in local history and become the poster child for oft-delayed, big-ticket development projects - a poster child for all the wrong reasons.

The project carries a potential $600 million price tag, making it the most expensive single construction project in regional history. But it might also spearhead a new wave of private-sector-driven development and cement Buffalo's position as a key international trade route.

"Damn it, let's make a decision (on the Peace Bridge) and move forward," said a frustrated Robert Reynolds, an Erie County legislator.

Breakthrough moment

The logjam appears to have been broken when the Buffalo and Ft. Erie Public Bridge Authority, the binational agency that governs the Peace Bridge, agreed in mid-November to ask its design team of Florida-based architects Christian Menn and Figg Engineering Group to fast-track a new design for the international crossing.

Plans for a previously announced twin-towered cable-stayed bridge 567 feet tall were rejected by the federal government this summer because of environmental concerns, particularly those concerning migratory bird flight patterns. That was just the latest of many road blocks in a project many considered an aesthetic symbol for the region and a critical piece of economic development and trade infrastructure.

The Peace Bridge is the busiest U.S.-Canada crossing for cars crossing in or out of the 11 U.S. states that border Canada. The bridge is projected to handle 5.5 million cars this year plus another 1.3 million trucks.

A decade later, different needs

When the project was first announced more than a decade ago, the second span was needed because of increased traffic flow. While those concerns remain, since the 2001 terrorist attacks, there is also a greater sense of national security that is putting more demands on the bridge and the U.S. Customs operations there.

"The reasons for building the new span and plaza are much different today than they were in the 1990s," said Ron Rienas, Peace Bridge Authority general manager. "This is really about improving the way in which the bridge functions in today's world."

Sen. Charles Schumer said the authority's decision to fast-track the new design is long overdue and may be a critical element in moving the project forward.

"This is a big step forward for building a brand-new, breathtaking signature bridge for Buffalo," Schumer said.

Schumer said he will use his clout in Washington and elsewhere to make sure the project moves ahead.

"We should move full speed ahead but be smart about how we move forward," he said.

That includes extending an olive branch to the Buffalo Olmsted Parks Conservancy, which has concerns about the how the bridge and the U.S. plaza design might impact Front Park. The Conservancy has repeatedly said current bridge designs will have a negative impact on the park, which was designed by Frederick Law Olmsted in 1876.

"We're not against the bridge, but we just want it built right," said Buffalo attorney David Colligan, Conservancy president.

The Conservancy has made several recommendations on how the bridge plaza can be constructed without intruding on Front Park. The catch is that the recommendations don't come cheap.

The recommendations, which include rerouting truck traffic or building a 100-foot wide pedestrian bridge to connect Front Park with Buffalo's waterfront, could collectively add more than $82 million to the cost of a project that is already approaching a $600 million price tag.

Colligan, a partner in Watson Bennett Colligan Johnson & Schechter LLP, said there are federal precedents to support the notion that dollars should be added to a major public-works project if a significant parcel of land will be preserved in the process. The U.S. government in 1984 made Hawaii add $42 million to a major highway reconstruction project to preserve a public golf course.

"The current PBA plans do nothing but wall off and isolate Front Park," Colligan said.

Switching sides?

One solution might be if the Obama administration takes a new look at proposals to shift the functions of the U.S. plaza to the Ft. Erie side of the bridge. A shared-border-management pact was negotiated by Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton but ultimately rejected by the Bush administration two years ago.

Rienas agrees that shared border management could solve many problems, but he remains doubtful that such a plan will be implemented anytime soon.

"I'd like to think we are at the one-yard line and not the 20-yard line," he said. "Our only hope is if the Obama administration makes a decision quickly. If they spend five years studying it and then end up with the same conclusions of where we are today, we've gained nothing."

Rienas said he also disputes the Olmsted Conservancy's contention that new designs will harm Front Park. Rienas said the Authority is sensitive to the park and its history.

"To suggest that we want to wall it off is inaccurate," he said.

Rienas said he remains confident a solution can be reached.

"We all want, and I think everyone wants, a so-called signature bridge," Rienas said. "But at the end of the day, we also need a bridge and plaza design that can get permitted in both the U.S. and Canada, and built."