Penn's Landing Redevelopment Leads To Crew Cutting Out 'Scissor Ramps'
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Wednesday, crews at Penn's Landing will begin demolishing the "scissor ramps" at the end of Market and Chestnut Streets, to make way for the "cap" over I-95.
Demolition crews are blocking-off the 1970s-era "scissor ramps" connecting Market and Chestnut Streets with Columbus Boulevard below.
It's the first phase of a long-anticipated project to build a 12-acre park over I-95 connecting Center City with the Delaware Riverfront.
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Funding is nearly all in place, and work on the park isn't expected to begin until four years from now. But Delaware River Waterfront Corporation president Joe Forkin says the agency is seizing an opportunity now.
"That opportunity is to remove a little-used structure, although a significant structure that sits on over two acres of land, and clear that and ready that site for development," he said.
Forkin says access to Columbus Boulevard is still available, via Dock, Race, Callowhill and Spring Garden Streets.
He adds removing the ramps will take about three months, and the viaduct, or "loop" structure over which SEPTA buses turn around, will remain.
