Mayor Kenney Commits $90M To Fund Capping Of I-95 For Waterfront Park
As part of a budget address on Thursday, Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney announced plans to commit $90M to a project capping I-95 between Walnut and Chestnut streets for a park connecting Delaware River and Penn's Landing to the rest of the city.
The $90M will be doled out over six years to partially fund the project, at an estimated cost of $225M, with the rest coming from state funding and private donors, Kenney told PlanPhilly. The proposed park comes from the Master Plan for the Central Delaware, conceived by the Delaware River Waterfront Corp. in 2012 and adopted by the city.
The park, designed by Hargreaves Associates, is meant to encourage adjacent private development in an area defined by the highway and parking structures for Penn's Landing. The park is still in the design phase, but changes are already being made to ramp and stairway access in the area.
