Friday, March 12, 1999
Leftover dirt should save pile of money
BY LUCY MAY
The Cincinnati Enquirer
This just in from the waste-not, want-not department: The city might use leftover dirt from Fort Washington Way in the development of Cincinnati's central riverfront.
City and Hamilton County officials recently discovered that starting this August, construction crews will have to build a series of retaining walls to raise the elevation of the riverfront.
Consultants estimated it would cost $5 million to $6 million for the retaining walls and dirt, or fill, needed to prepare the riverfront for the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center and a new road network.
Now the city figures it can save some money by using dirt removed from the $146.9 million reconstruction of the downtown highway, said City Architect Bob Richardson.
“We have a good stockpile we took out of Fort Washington Way,” he said.
The city was saving the dirt in case it was needed to build the new Second Street along the riverfront. But officials have decided to build an elevated Second Street so a transit center can be built under it.
That leaves the city with a perfectly good pile of dirt west of the Brent Spence Bridge, Mr. Richardson said.
He doesn't think the dirt is enough to do the whole job on the riverfront, but it's a start. Mr. Richardson wasn't sure how much money could be saved by re-using the dirt.
Hamilton County Commissioner Bob Bedinghaus, who sits on the city-county Riverfront Steering Committee overseeing the waterfront's design, said using the leftovers sounds like a smart move.
“I'm not a real technical kind of guy, but dirt's dirt,” he said. “To the extent that saves money, that's good for the city.”
The city also is studying whether fill is the best way to build up the riverfront. City officials have hired a consulting firm to determine whether there's another method that would work better, Mr. Richardson said.
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