Designers make adjustments to Ohio River Vision plan
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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowEVANSVILLE, Ind. - Officials in Evansville have revealed updated designs for a portion of the Ohio River Vision and Strategic Plan that was originally announced last year.
Architecture firm Sasaki released new renderings for some of the plans for the Evansville riverfront, which show adjustments to accommodate flooding concerns along the river.
The city revealed the strategic plan last May. It a 50-mile stretch along the Ohio River from Mt. Vernon to Newburgh with the goal of developing a more attractive and healthier region, draw new residents and visitors and take advantage of existing riverfront investments.
Sasaki told our partners at WEHT-TV that the adjustments made to the designs were the result of a closer evaluation of the area’s utilities, levees, and infrastructure.
“From the master plan to now is considering the levee and understanding moving the levee multiple times is very costly,” Sasaki Principal and Landscape Architect Anna Cawrse said.
The new designs display updated features that have been elevated because of flooding concerns, including a restaurant and terrace, as well as changes to Riverside Drive that includes street parking and walking paths and a relocated Four Freedoms Monument.
“Everybody will be able to partake in this, it will be all-inclusive, and we will make sure it is built to last,” says Ashley Diekmann, River Vision Advancement Director with the Evansville Regional Economic Partnership. “The economic growth has so much potential, and being able to have active and walkable city, and making sure…we’re bringing the residents to the Ohio and the Ohio to the residents.”
The overall cost of the project—and where the funding will come from—is still being determined. Officials say the project could take up to 20 years to complete.