The new Buffalo Bridge offers much-needed pedestrian infrastructure

There is nothing pedestrian about this Buffalo Bridge for pedestrians who have passed by New York State city last summer. Sent from the port of Veniceacross the Atlantic Ocean to the Hudson River, it was loaded onto a barge for a two-week journey through the locks of the historic Erie Canal, and finally to its destination, where a crowd of excited onlookers awaited. Its four large pieces were welded together and painted, and in early October cranes lifted the 200-ton structure into place overnight while the city slept.

The bridge was designed by the New York office of the engineering firm Schlaich Bergermann Partner (sbp) and built by the Italian company Cimolai, a specialist in complex steel structures, in its workshop in San Giorgio di Nogaro.

Installation of the Buffalo Bridge

Eventually, it will allow pedestrians to cross the busy I-190 highway that connects the city to the more than 100-acre park along the waterfront where the Niagara River flows into Lake Erie. It replaces the return bridge, which has become old and unsafe. The new one is long enough that it can be approached on ramps and not on turns. At night, it will be illuminated by an LED display.

Michael Stein, managing director of sbp, says, “Since the park is divided by an interstate highway, our goal was to easily transport users between the two parts of the park, creating an elegant structure that also functions as an engaging public space.”

buffalo bridge

(Image: courtesy of bergermann partners)

The bridge is an 81-meter-long spandrel arch structure with two long, slender white arches that lean protectively toward each other and are joined at the top. The sides are designed to protect pedestrians from traffic noise, and the patterned cutouts refer to the city’s architectural heritage.

Once a landfill before becoming a park in the 1930s, the area formerly known as LaSalle Park has seen better days and is undergoing a complete transformation. It was renamed Ralph Wilson Park after the former owner of the Buffalo football team, who after his death in 2014 created a $1 billion endowment to fund projects for underserved communities. The fund invested $50 million in initial capital; the final budget for the park and bridge is about $170 million.

buffalo bridge

(Image: courtesy of bergermann partners)

New York landscape firm Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates redesigned the park with significant community input, aiming to make it world-class with a baseball field, soccer field, tarmac, walkways, nature trails, concert tent and epic playground. Denmark‘s Monstrum.

After removing a concrete seawall that did little to protect the park from Buffalo’s brutal weather, MVVA made the shoreline more rugged and more resistant to rough waters. Fish and birds have already begun to appear in the peaceful new bay. From 2026, people will definitely follow her, crossing the lovingly created pedestrian bridge to this huge urban oasis.

sbp.de