Wilson Park project aimed at shoreline resilience

The remake of the old LaSalle Park, fueled by a $50 million contribution from the Ralph C. Wilson Jr. Foundation in October 2018, was scheduled to be completed just two years ago in 2025.

But the need to make the park’s shoreline more weather-resistant — along with other factors such as pandemic-related supply chain issues and crushing demand for construction workers for the new U.S. stadium Buffalo Bills and the expansion of the Buffalo AKG Art Gallery – pushed the park. opening in phases, from 2026.

“This is a massive project, and we can’t build the interior of the park, the fun stuff, until the shoreline is built, and that’s because the park was taking a lot of water and was deteriorating,” the Ralph Wilson Conservancy said. Executive Director Kate Campos told about 150 people at a community meeting Tuesday at Waterfront Elementary School.

Major winter storms in recent years have battered the more than 100-year-old sea wall that protects the park. Shoreline strengthening is therefore considered essential for the coming decades, as storm intensity is expected to increase due to climate change.

“You can’t put a world-class park behind a deteriorating coastline, so we had to include the shoreline project in our phases of work,” said Buffalo Deputy Parks Commissioner Andy Raab.

The shoreline remake includes the creation of a kidney-shaped lagoon at the south end of the park that will allow for habitat restoration, as well as public access to the water’s edge.

“We’re going to create an ecosystem inside the park that will be phenomenal to live in, as well as fish, waterfowl and other animals,” said Sean Sullivan, site supervisor for Gilbane Management Co., which is building the park.

Work on the first phase began in July and is halfway complete. The work includes new utilities – including power, water and sewer lines – and work related to the new pedestrian bridge that will extend from the park to Interstate 190 to the Lower West Side of the city.

This phase will cost nearly $100 million, Raab said.

The sleek new bridge from German design firm Schlaich Bergermann Partner was supposed to be installed a year ago. It is made in Italy, will cross the Atlantic this summer and will be delivered to the park by barge. The old bridge will be destroyed and the new one will be installed for a 12-hour period in the fall, while road and rail traffic will be closed, Rabb said.

“The bridge appeared unsafe, was not ADA accessible and had switchback ramps at each end that were difficult to get on and off with bikes and strollers,” Campos said. “The new bridge will become the gateway to the park.”

A landscaped path with a 30-foot hill and playground will be located before the bridge entrance on Fourth Street, with a landscaped path and hill on the other side, where the bridge meets the park, a- she declared.

Most of the expected features of Wilson Park will be realized in later phases. They understand:

Topographical changes including a toboggan run.

A massive 2½ acre playground for exploration and adventure.

New ball fields, including a hardball field, four little league and softball fields and two soccer fields.

Triple the number of walking paths and new landscaping.

The ideas grew out of a 20-member Imagine LaSalle focus group that worked with the University at Buffalo Regional Institute starting in 2017 to imagine a transformed park.

At the time, it was not yet realized that the coastline needed to be more resilient.

Multimillion-dollar damage to Times Beach Nature Preserve, Buffalo Harbor State Park, Erie Basin Marina and Wilson Park in recent years has highlighted concerns.

There was also no ideal ecological state to return to, since the eastern shore of Lake Erie is wetlands.

Jill Jedlicka, executive director of Buffalo Niagara Waterkeeper, said to think about the 180 miles of Lake Erie between Cleveland and Buffalo being pushed by the wind against the park, with the capacity to rise 10 feet or more. The straight walls and flat surfaces in place were insufficient to stop overtopping and combat erosion, she said.

Gilbane is reshaping the shoreline to better handle waves by using an “armoured stone line” of stones carefully chosen together to absorb harsh winters, Sullivan said. The land at the water’s edge was also slightly raised to protect against flooding.

Jedlicka has high hopes for the ecological habitat that will be created, including nursing habitat for muskellunge, as well as sturgeon habitat a little further offshore.

“What we’re going to do is try to create an ecosystem that balances human recreational needs and the desires of this community,” Jedlicka said.

“We know,” she says of aquatic life, “that if we build it, they will come.”