Wednesday, February 03, 1999
New transit center, big question
Challenge: What modes are being built for?
BY TANYA ALBERT
The Cincinnati Enquirer
A riverfront transit center is being designed even before planners know exactly how many modes of transportation — from buses to rail — it will need to accommodate.
The goal: Create an $18 million, two-tiered Second Street so buses and possibly commuter rail could run on the lower level and cars, maybe light rail, too, would run on the top.
The challenge: Create plans that make room for transportation modes that don't exist in Cincinnati yet.
Commuter and light rail are being explored for downtown and Greater Cincinnati, but no plans are concrete.
“Except for buses, we don't know what type of equipment we are trying to accommodate,” project engineer John Deatrick said.
But the designs for Second Street should be completed in May or June — to make it possible for new modes of mass transportation to come into the downtown riverfront.
“We're trying to design something with flexibility,” said Tim Reynolds, strategic planning director for the Southwest Ohio Regional Transit Authority (SORTA). “It's being designed to leave the door open for as much as possible.”
The new Second Street construction should start this summer and be done in 2000. Crews will raise the street to create two levels. Part of the plan is to build a plaza just outside the future National Underground Railroad Freedom Center, near the Roebling Suspension Bridge. Escalators and stairs would make it easy for people to get to and from the two levels.
As plans develop, engineers are looking at creating 24 bus
Light-rail hearing Does Cincinnati need a light-rail line? It's the topic of a public hearing at City Hall on Thursday. B3
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