Don't worry guys.  That orange brick won't come out nearly as vibrant as whats shown in the renderings. 

They were doing another big concrete pour today from 8am to 11am.

They were doing another big concrete pour today from 8am to 11am.

 

For what part?

They were doing another big concrete pour today from 8am to 11am.

 

For what part?

 

This is the information I received from The Banks project team:

 

"Weather permitting, crews at The Banks construction site downtown will pour concrete to complete the public parties construction of the developer’s podium, the platform upon which the retail, entertainment and housing venues will be built."

 

And it actually was from 7am to 11am (not 8am).

^ Oh wow!

Yea now that the garage foundation is pretty much finished, things will be moving along quickly now.  It's amzing how much time goes into foundation though.  Super important.  Just think, 2 years ago it was mud and grass there.

Foundation work always takes the longest in any project. Look how long it took for QCSII to get above ground, and how fast it started moving once they did so.

There is still a fairly large portion of Phase 1b that still requires foundation poured. Currently the crawler crane is positioned in the middle, assisting in building the garage decks surrounding it. I'd guess sometime in April they'd have Phase 1b garages complete.

They were doing another big concrete pour today from 8am to 11am.

 

For what part?

 

This is the information I received from The Banks project team:

 

"Weather permitting, crews at The Banks construction site downtown will pour concrete to complete the public parties construction of the developer’s podium, the platform upon which the retail, entertainment and housing venues will be built."

 

And it actually was from 7am to 11am (not 8am).

 

Looking out my window, I can tell you they did a big pour on the south (second) block, Western 25%, basically finishing it off. They are pouring a border wall now south of the Moerlein brewhouse platform.  They also poured a big slab on the second floor of vertical construction on the north block, which is moving along quite nicely. 

At the site now. Large pour still in progress at 5:20 p.m. in the eastern section of 1b. Oh, and the crawler has been moved out so that they can level the dirt. Will try to post a pic.

Across from the Rose garden at GABP

Contractor picked for Banks road work

 

 

By Lisa Bernard-Kuhn • [email protected]  • March 3, 2010

 

DOWNTOWN - Linwood-based Prus Construction Co. has been tapped as the primary contractor to oversee a $7.1 million relocation of Mehring Way - a pivotal project milestone part of The Banks riverfront development.

Something I think the Banks really misses the boat on is making it car-free. They could just make all the garage entrances on the northern side, and close the rest off to cars. What's the advantage of not doing this? It's not like it's a large space that you need a car to traverse.

 

It's one of the few things Newport on the Levee did right, not allowing cars. Of course, in doing so, they made NPotL totally uninviting to pedestrians from the surrounding neighborhood.

I think you misinterpreted what I said - I didn't say scrap the garages. I said make them accessible from the northern side, and close off the rest of the streets to traffic. At the very most, you would only need the north-south streets to take cars.

America does not have a good history with pedestrian streets. Most cutting edge planners now tend to favor streets that accommodate many forms of travel; bike, ped, car, mixed ROW rail, whatever. Part of being urban is being accessible, even to cars. Just because America devoted nearly everything to cars does not mean they are inherently bad or even anti-urban. They are just one more way to get around. In this sense, the Banks planners did not miss the boat at all.

The new Times Square rocks.

 

But really it's not like this is in the middle of downtown. It's kind of tucked into a corner. Consider it a transitional area from the park to the rest of downtown, and a bike/ped area connecting the stadiums/Freedom Center. It's not a typical location, and I don't think having car traffic there is going to do anything good.

 

It would supply a good place for people to funnel into on game days, fireworks days, etc. It would be much more inviting if people could just walk through the streets.

I'd love it if they just close off some of the streets during games, festivals, etc but I don't know if it's possible based on where the garage entrances are.  Blocking off freedom way to cars during those events would be great.

So, according to the article above:  By August we will no longer have a Berry Way west of Vine and Mehring Way will be relocated...folks, these are going to be some very noticeable permanent changes to our riverfront that are just a few months away!  Wow!

 

How fun has it been to witness the changes in this part of the city since 1998?

^^There are no garage entrances/exits on Freedom Way between Walnut and Joe Nuxhall Way. I'd think this portion would be closed during Reds games as Nuxhall Way always has been (except to taxis).

But really it's not like this is in the middle of downtown. It's kind of tucked into a corner. Consider it a transitional area from the park to the rest of downtown, and a bike/ped area connecting the stadiums/Freedom Center. It's not a typical location, and I don't think having car traffic there is going to do anything good.

 

A billion dollars will have been spent to reconnect the riverfront to downtown. That's why access should be as high as possible, by a diversity of modes. This does not mean the streets cannot become pedestrian at certain times. It's certainly a special place. But again, cars are not enemies, they are just one more mode of transportation.

 

Pedestrian malls can only work in areas where pedestrians can be taken for granted, which is cities with heavy subway and taxicab use.  The pedestrian mall in Buffalo doesn't work even though it is fed by a light rail line because use of that line only represents a fraction of the region's trips. 

The only two pedestrian/transit malls that come to mind that are continually successful are Denver's 16th St. Mall and Nicollet Mall in Minneapolis.  I am sure there are others, but a lot of cities tried to imitate these and failed miserably.

I would argue against closing roads to cars on almost all occasions.  Even the previously mentioned closed sections of Broadway in New York suck.  It makes the street seem too sterile.  Part of the attractiveness of urban areas are the bustling nature of them.  We shouldn't be striving to make our city streets look like Disney World or the inside of a mega mall.  Just an opinion though. 

 

I lived in NYC for a year, before and during the time they proposed to close bug chunks of Broadway.  Before, it was an interesting mix huge pedestrian crowds and cars all trying to squeeze together.  It forced people to slow down and enjoy it.  Now it seems exactly like walking through Disney World feels, and I'm not a big fan of that.

Having the ability to easily close the roads for special events or on weekend nights (4th Street Live comes to mind) is a nice thing to have. (Although I would caution very very strongly against building a roof over the street).

Pedestrian malls can only work in areas where pedestrians can be taken for granted, which is cities with heavy subway and taxicab use. The pedestrian mall in Buffalo doesn't work even though it is fed by a light rail line because use of that line only represents a fraction of the region's trips.

 

Probably the most successful example of a pedestrian mall is Santa Monica's Third Street Promenade, and they have no subway access, nor an abundance of cabs.  Third St. grew so popular, the spill over to other streets throughout Santa Monica has been incredible.  Perhaps this location works due to the high number of tourists coming to the beach, but having been to SM both before and after 3rd was blocked to cars, I can tell you the transformation has been incredible.

Lexington Ky is talking about making a section near Rupp Arena similar to the Banks or Arena District and many people are pushing for a roof over the street like on 4th Street Live. Just out of curiosity why would you (thomasbw) caution against a roof over the street. It works in Louisville and on Freemont St. in Las Vegas.

^I would caution against it just because it looks trashy.  Las Vegas is allowed to be as trashy as it wants because that its schtick.  Louisville gets a pass because, I don't know, it's Kentucky.  :wtf:

Lexington Ky is talking about making a section near Rupp Arena similar to the Banks or Arena District and many people are pushing for a roof over the street like on 4th Street Live. Just out of curiosity why would you (thomasbw) caution against a roof over the street. It works in Louisville and on Freemont St. in Las Vegas.

 

The short answer is because we are building a city, not a mall.

Overall, I am happy with the concept of using garages under the project which will double as the flood plain risers.

 

I know we've already discussed this somewhere along the previous 149, but I want to share this for those who might be interested. 

 

I'm biased with what I'm about to say because I come from the rebar world, but I would've loved to have seen them use this project as a catalyst for stainless coated rebar instead of epoxy.

 

Yes, it would've been 4 times more expensive, BUT it would last 100 years at least........possibly longer!?!?!

 

My only fear is the floods may take their toll on the epoxy rather quickly..........

 

About $10 Billion is spent annually to directly remediate corrosion problems with our nation’s bridges, and indirect costs push that annual expenditure up by a factor of ten. Epoxy coated rebar has been the most widely used method for corrosion protection. The epoxy coating is intended to isolate the steel from the corrosive alkaline environment associated with the concrete.  However, under certain conditions, the epoxy coating can actually accelerate the corrosion of the steel. The relatively weak physical bond between the epoxy and steel is not a sufficient barrier to attack by moisture. Furthermore, the epoxy coating is detrimental to the concrete-steel bond strength, thus requiring longer development lengths for epoxy coated rebar.

 

edit:

2007 Missouri DOT

http://library.modot.mo.gov/RDT/reports/Ri00027/or08011.pdf

2001 Missouri

http://utc.mst.edu/research/R236.html

 

2001 South Dakota DOT

http://www.state.sd.us/Applications/HR19ResearchProjects/Projects%5CSD2000_04.Final_Report.pdf

 

Great observation! Thanks for pointing that out to those of us who have no clue about such things.  Do you think using epoxy will cause major problems in the future?

The Central Riverfront Park will ramp up to the garages which will then act as a floodwall.  So the development won't actually flood by design.

Is the epoxy what makes the rebar green?

Is the epoxy what makes the rebar green?

 

Yes. 

 

I don't imagine that floods are going to be much of a factor in the longevity of construction like this though.  It's so infrequent compared to more day-to-day stuff like condensation, rain, and the worst thing, slushy snow/salt brine.  Road salt is the single biggest destroyer of concrete bridges and roadways.  I suppose solid stainless steel rebar would be the longest lasting, though prohibitively expensive.  I wouldn't be surprised to see some sort of carbon fiber or fiberglass epoxy resin sheeting used for concrete reinforcement in the future. 

 

Still, we have a lot of steel reinforced concrete structures out there, the 8th Street and Western Hills viaducts, and Union Terminal are from the late 1920s and early 1930s, and while they need a lot of work, they have held up (the Western Hills viaduct is basically made up of huge steel girders that are encased in concrete, not like typical rebar).  The Ingalls Building and Melan Arch Bridge in Eden Park are both over 100 years old.  They do require maintenance, but is it more than any other construction method?  Stone arch vaults (or by extension, unreinforced concrete vaults, which would also have to be arched similar to stone or brick), require huge amounts of space for all the piers, but other than that I can't think of a more long-lasting and practical material than reinforced concrete.  It just can't be left completely alone (really nothing can be if you want it to last). 

When I went on The Banks tour several weeks ago I asked them about the flooding issue.  Yes, the garages are designed to flood.  They have found that in situations where they've tried to build garages impervious to flooding that the water has found a way in anyway and caused more damage than if they were simply designed to flood. 

 

Parsons-Brinkerhoff has built in hookups for fire hoses and said that they will train the staff on how to clean out the garages properly after a flood.  But a flood only happens once every 20-30 years, so it's not that big of a deal. 

 

 

 

 

 

We used epoxy coated steel on DOT projects only when I was in that industry.  Our proprietary structures were estimated to have a 75 year life span due to site and structure design. 

 

I would imagine the fear that the epoxy not providing enough protection in these piers are on the same level of concern as an earthquake compromising them.  But I could be wrong.

The downfall of Riverfront Stadium was theoretically blamed on the poor quality of the garages that were also designed to flood. The drive to build the new stadiums happened when folks claimed the need to spend a large amount on fixing that garage.

Yeah they found one piece of exposed rebar, kept showing it over and over again on TV, and that necessitated a $1 billion remedy.  When I was a kid, it never occurred to me that Riverfront would be demo'd in our lifetime.  We won the world series, then four years later you "couldn't win a championship in that stadium".  Looking back, it's obvious that many in the local media were paid off, that there were all kinds of paid callers into talk radio, etc.  That sentiment came out of nowhere.   

If you haven't seen the Banks lately, it's really progressing quickly...and I mean, like, in the past week.  It may not look as different from the ground, but from my office, where I see it every day, you get a real picture of how much progress is being made.  They just did a big pour today on the SE quarter of the second floor.  Moreover, other than the angled segment that will hold the Moerlein Ale house, the entire south block is clean, primed and ready to go.  This thing is moving along.

I hope the job is as great as the view!

Why or why can't they put up a webcam or us out-of-towners?!

Why or why can't they put up a webcam or us out-of-towners?!

 

Haha, I still have the old cam link in my bookmarks, and I check it weekly only to be disappointed weekly.

^ It's progressing, yes, but its just concrete right now. Other than satisfying our compulsive urge to click the webcam, rest assured that you're not missing too much yet. Once things look truly different plenty of people are gonna be on here taking pictures.

No real new information in this Enquirer article from Sunday's paper.

 

Banking on The Banks

A lot is riding on this ambitious development

 

DOWNTOWN - After all the delays, debate and derision, The Banks is rising.

 

If all goes as planned - and so far it seems to be - the first of 300 apartments in the Cincinnati riverfront development will be ready for renters by early 2011.

 

By Reds Opening Day next year, The Banks should be home to new retailers, restaurants, a massive sea of underground parking and a sprawling riverfront park.

 

 

They are going to start the vertical build on the south pad beginning April 1.  Also the southernmost segment they are working on new is actually the Walnut Street Event Lawn section of the Central Riverfront Park.  The Easternmost portion of that is the Moerlein Lager House.  Underneath the Walnut Street Lawn there will be the park offices and visitor's center, as well as the bike/mobility center. That, as well as the steps and water feature, will be done by next Spring (same goes for Moerlein).  Also, that swath of greenspace between the Steamship Memorial and the park site will also be part of the park and the bike trail will run through that.  There will also be a fountain feature and garden on that portion.

I would just like condemn in the STRONGEST SENSE the decision to re-name Main "Joe Nuxhall Way."

 

NOT a fan of honorary street names here. Main is Main.

Wow, this guy really grasps something important:

 

"Our dreams and ambitions as a society are still there. Perhaps they are more modest, though, tempered by tough times. We no longer assume that our fortunes and expectations will move in an endless upward cycle. We are saving more, splurging less, thinking on a less grand scale..."

 

From:

 

http://news.cincinnati.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/AB/20100315/COL02/3140376/

 

 

The last lines of that article should be put on a building down there.

The Streetcar Will Be Great For: The Banks

http://cincystreetcar.wordpress.com/2010/03/16/the-streetcar-will-be-great-for-the-banks/

Question here.  Why is the Ale House going to be located on an area that was supposed to be part of the park?  You have all this commercial space available iwith the Banks i.e  right next door, why use up potential parkspace?  Was the park always supposed to have a restaurant? I thought the Banks was supposed to have two restaurants overlooking the park. That location of the Ale House seems very odd to me.

Was the park always supposed to have a restaurant?

 

I believe so.