New Waterfront Park is Coming to Bridesburg
New Waterfront Park is Coming to Bridesburg
Slowly but surely the city of Philadelphia is making good use of the prime real estate that runs along the Delaware River. For years the vast majority of the riverfront has been under utilized and wasting away at defunct piers and industrial sites. However, in recent years the city has been making strides to beautify these areas and create parks such as Spruce Street Harbor Park and Cherry Street Pier. Now a new waterfront park is coming to Bridesburg, that will off sweeping views of the Betsy Ross and Tacony-Palmyra Bridges.
That’s right, not to be forgotten, Bridesburg has a nice stretch of waterfront property that will soon be transformed into a gorgeous 10-acre park. The project has been partially funded by The William Penn Foundation. The foundation recently gave $2 million to be put towards the construction of the park as well as to develop a community outreach program. The overall budget needed to complete the park has been estimated to be about $10 million.
The park will be owned by the city but overseen in partnership of the William Penn Foundation. As for the schematics, the park will connect the current 2.2 mile trail running along Delaware Avenue to Orthodox Street. Eventually this section of the river will boast 11 miles of connected parks and trails that will stretch from Torresdale down to Port Richmond.
Langan Engineering has been tapped to be the designers of the Bridesburg waterfront park. Langan estimates that the first phase of construction will be completed around 2021. The second phase of construction is scheduled for 2025 and is estimated to cost between $4 million to $5 million. This will include the construction of events space with stage, boardwalk, and break out areas.
