Lockport NY

The Buffalo News reported that the N. Adam St bridge will close at the beginning of the canal season with no "repair" date in sight:

...The DOT is concerned about the deteriorating condition of the lift mechanism for the bridge, which underwent $300,000 worth of emergency repairs during a three-month closure in 2000.

On April 28, which Tucker said is expected to be opening day for canal navigation, the bridge will be raised and not lowered again. The DOT’s letter said it is investigating whether the bridge should be repaired or removed.

It could be a long wait for action, he said. The other lift bridge on nearby Exchange Street was closed in 1993 and not reopened until a new $3.1 million span was built in 2000...

Lockport most likely does not have the traffic load in lower town to necessitate two lift bridges so close together. Through they do add to the atmosphere of the canal in that area. I do not look forward to years of construction barriers surrounding a permanently raised bridge.

The Buffalo News reported the recently annouced Water Trail System created by the State Canal Corp.

The state Canal Corp. has created a trail system of 100 launch sites for boats and paddle craft across New York, officials are announcing today.



Dubbed the "Canalway Water Trail," the effort is aimed at improving existing sites by making them more user-friendly, Canal Corp. Director Carmella R. Mantello said at a press conference this morning in Mayor's Park.


One of the goals of the project is to have a launch site every 10 to 15 miles, Mantello said. Some sites along the trail are for motorized crafts, while others are for non-motorized. Some existing sites where camping is available are also included.


There are two sites in Erie County and seven in Niagara County that are part of the first 100 sites in the system. The site in Erie County are the Tonawanda Wall in the City of Tonawanda and the Amherst Boat Launch in the Town of Amherst.

The Niagara County sites include Nelson C. Goehle Marine Park and the Upper Terminal Launch in the City of Lockport; the Botanical Gardens, Mayor's Park and city launch in North Tonawanda; the Gasport Launch in the Town of Royalton; and West Canal Park and Marina in the Town of Pendleton.

Interactive map is here.

A volunteer based canal cleanup is scheduled for tomorrow. Meet at the Excalibur Gazebo at 9:30 AM. A rain date of May 1st is scheduled if it is raining before 9:00. The Buffalo News and WLVL reported.

Last night we took a nice 2 hour walk around the city. Always of note are the lovely big items that can be found at the base of the canal while it is drained. Do these bikes, tires, shopping carts, etc slowly bury themself of does the state eventually remove them?

Hello.

When the Union Sun & Journal forms closed, I decided to take up MJ's open offer when he started this blog, that he was always open for more posters.  So, here I am.

So let me give you a quick introduction.  I've lived in Lockport all my life (some 30+ years), and within the past few years, I've been lucky enough to work in Lockport as well.  I have also lived in a few different sections of the city.  I grew up during the days of a vibrant active Lockport Mall, and an empty field where WalMart is now. There have been a LOT of changes to Lockport throughout my life.  Sadly, most of them have been in rather recent history.  Sadly, because it took a long time for someone to try to bring Lockport out from under the rock that we had hidden ourselves in.  So it's been rather exciting times for a lifer like myself.

As a matter of fact, what caused me to finally register to the US&J forum was so I could be one of the few supporters (at least on that forum) of the Flight of Five project.  Having lived along the canal in the 'touristy' section of town, it's amazing to see how many people come to visit the canal, and any money spent to encourage people to come, and anything we can do to make sure they spend more time, is money well spent.

Enough with my babbling, thanks for putting up with me, and thanks to MJ for getting this all started.

Erik.

Read an article at Buffalo Rising today on the Buffalo River finally having a place that rents boats (kayaks). I'm pretty sure there is not one in Lockport (correct me if I'm wrong) and I've always wondered why.

The canal is one of the easiest place to paddle due to the always very calm controlled water. The locks also present a novel experience. The chambers feel 100x as massive when sitting down in a man-powered watercraft.

Looking to have people stick around through offering them activities? This would appear to be a great one. One could even wrap bikes into the mix. Create drop off points in Gasport etc and people could make a leisurely one-way trips back to Lockport.

I could see it being a nice fit over at the Lockport Locks and Erie Canal Cruises. Or I need to win the lottery for some seed money ;)

Image - Waiting to go up - Erie Canal Lock 34 - Lockport NY

Good luck. I'd love to see this come to fruition.

...Lockport Legislators W. Keith McNall, Anthony J. Nemi and Richard E. Updegrove are co-sponsoring a resolution on tonight’s Legislature agenda to allocate the project $75,000 from the county’s share of Seneca Niagara Casino slot machine funding.

Mayor Michael W. Tucker said the money would come in handy, since in December the state awarded the city a $125,000 grant toward the study. However, the catch is that only half of that money actually comes from Albany; the rest has to come from a local match...

...Tucker said the Upper Harbor would target transient boaters who want to tie up their boats and visit Lockport without necessarily having to go through the locks. The location off West Genesee Street would be closer to the downtown business district than Widewaters is.

“Widewaters was made for small-type vessels. This [upper] marina, you’d be able to put larger boats in,” Tucker said.

When he asked the Common Council to apply for the grant in November 2007, Kinyon envisioned 500 feet of docks and a 6,000-square-foot building with showers, rest-rooms, laundry facilities and a restaurant...

I have always thought an upper DT marina would be a wonderful feature. Something that would be similar to the set up in North Tonawanda. Widewaters marina is too far from DT to have much, if any, spin off effect of luring boaters to Main St. Even the proposed study location is on the fringe of being useful without a thread of continuous development leading toward the city center. Though maybe having boat parking and the resulting pedestirans would help to that end.

I wonder if this would involve excavating into the site or just placing slips parallel to the current canal bank. I look forward to seeing any plans if they get funded.

Buffalo News had an Update on the Flight of Five project today.

“The stars are in misalignment. The stock market is in the tank, and the state budget is nowhere,” Welsby said. “Perhaps for that $1.8 million we can restore two complete locks. We can work our way up. In the meantime, we don’t give up our hunt for money.” The current investment woes hurt the availability of money for foundations, just as Flight of Five decision makers were planning a push to solicit grants from Erie County foundations. Toward that end, the city hired Full Circle Productions for 7,500 to produce a seven-minute promotional video, which was shown at Monday’s meeting.

This tiered approach makes sense to me. Even two locks would work well in defining the lower approach to the locks and showcasing how the older manual locks worked. I'd think locking through all 5 would be tedious and time consuming for a tourist anyways. This also puts off having to immediately deal with the flat concrete access bridge over the top lock.


I'll also try to see if it is possible to get a copy of the video or get a link to it if it ends up posted elsewhere. I'll have to ask later though since the delegation is of to Albany today:

The recommendation from Welsby’s engineering firm, Wendel Duchscherer, to limit the project comes as a city delegation drives to Albany today to meet with officials of the State Canal Corp. to try to settle a wide range of issues that have impeded the project, the city’s top tourism development priority.

The delegation includes Mayor Michael W. Tucker, Corporation Counsel John J. Ottaviano, City Treasurer Michael E. White, Welsby and David R. Kinyon, chairman of the Flight of Five Committee. One of the issues to be debated is a legal tangle over whether the city needs a long-term lease to gain access to the state property for the restoration work, or whether a short-term permit will do.

Original post here:Flight of Five 2011 Opening?

Buffalo News: Editorial

Buffalo News Article 1 and Article 2.

There will be elements that might bother purists —a wa - ter wheel, for
instance, and recreated canal locks that serve an important practical function
but were not used at this end of the canal — but there are elements of delight
as well. The Liberty Pole is back....

My question here may be a little premature since the plan is preliminary, but why are they discussing placing recreated canal locks in Buffalo's inner harbor? Especially when 30 mins north here in Lockport you have the real deal in two operating electrical locks and a push to restore the old northern Flight of Five locks? If this was private investment I would say good luck. But having a very heavy public investment, would it not make more sense to put some of the state money toward the Flight of Five restoration and then cross promote both places and the region as a whole?

WNY's cultural/tourism push has been based on having the "real deal" to offer. A prime example of which is the $50 mil Darwin Martin House restoration and another is the unearthing of the Commercial Slip on the site in discussion. Why are we then putting money into "fake" pseudo-historical artifacts when we already possess one of the marvels of early 19th century American engineering? It is smart of Buffalo to use its historical place as the Western Terminus of the old Erie Canal. It would be even smarter for all relevant portions of Erie and Niagara county to use their portion of the Erie Canal history as part of a team instead of trying to tell the whole story them self.

And as a side note: the image above has me wondering if there is anywhere to rent canoes or kayaks along the canal in Lockport? Locking thru in one of them is a fun and unique experience while just paddling along the canal is nice and relaxing in itself.

Older topic here: Flight of Five 2011 Opening?

"Although questions about funding and construction access to the Erie Canal
locks have yet to be settled, program manager Peter J. Welsby last week offered
a new timetable showing a June 2011 opening for the Flight of Five project.
Welsby, of the Wendel Duchscherer engineering firm, said arrangements have
been made with the state Canal Corp. for enough access to carry out a pilot
project next May, restoring masonry and railings near the bottom of the five
19th century lock..."

Of all the projects going on, this is one of the most exciting to me personally. It's a blessing and a great responsibility to have one of the great engineering feats of the 19th century still in tact right in the middle of our downtown. Over the years I have been pleasantly surprised by the number of vehicles with out of state license plates parked around the locks on any given day.

I'd guess there are many out there who pry question the value of spending a large sum of money on a project like this. Most would submit that the money would be better spent elsewhere, etc. But here we have one of the most notable structures on one of the most notable human works in the early history of the United States. this should create the ability to secure funding on all levels. (the economy will return someday ;)

Other areas on the canal are in process of rebuilding their portion of our history:

Camillus is in process of restoring the Nine Mile Creek Aqueduct to working status
http://www.eriecanalcamillus.com/aqueduct.htm
City of Buffalo commercial Slip unearthed and functioning as docking:
http://buffalowaterfront.com/Erie_Canal_Harbor_Officially_Opens.php

Lockport has the advantage of still having their notable structure still on the functioning canal system and dead center of DT businesses/other activities for actual spin off through interaction. Park once and walk to numerous other places. Add to it a new :hidden parking structure with surface park and overlook, possible "Upper Marina", great start/end point for the wine loop etc and we will have a critical mass to build up visitors and residents. We should be proud of what we have from those before us and do our best to preserve and use it to our best benefit.

For more year round interest: I wonder if we could do something similar to Ottawa who turns their DT locks into the "world's longest ice skating rink"?
http://www.ottawa-information-guide.com/rideau-canal.html
Ottawa is on my list of "have to visit" weekend road trips.

While poking around I came across this site, which is wonderfully laid out for Lockport Tourism.
http://lockportontheeriecanal.com/welcome-erie-canal-lockport.html. A really really nice layout. Send it to everyone you know and post it everywhere ;)

The article also stated:

For $7,500, Full Circle Studios is producing a five-to seven- minute video to be
shown next month to the foundation and perhaps to other funding sources later
on.

Will check to see if this video gets posted somewhere and if not I will see if I can get my hands on it to post.

How do you feel about this project?