Five new designs for the long-stalled Peace Bridge project have earned federal approval. All five have been deemed environmentally acceptable and any of them can by chosen by the project sponsors and moved forward to construction, New York's governor David Paterson has announced this week.
The New York State Department of Transportation and Buffalo & Fort Erie Public Bridge Authority reached the agreement concerning the designs with all necessary State, federal and Canadian environmental agencies.
Bridge designers Figg Engineering partnered with Christian Menn and avian experts Terry Yonker and Michael Morgante to develop the designs. The five designs are:
- two tower cable stay with with needle-shaped towers 105m tall
- three tower cable stay with needle-shaped towers 91.4m tall
- three span arch with arches of graduated heights, the tallest being 68.9m
- two tower cable stay with 105m-tall diamond-shaped towers
- three tower cable stay with 91.4m-tall diamond-shaped towers
