Completed Pier 68 park to be unveiled on October 1
Last week we told you about the new land acquisitions for the Delaware River Trail. Now there’s even more reason to be excited about the future of the waterfront, with the completion of Pier 68 park.
Work began on the park earlier this summer after being talked about since 2013. This new space on the formerly abandoned pier near the Walmart on Columbus Boulevard is now ready to be unveiled at a ceremony on October 1.
This new park space will include an improved entrance deck with seating and new finishings, new trees, a picnic area, an area for observation of the river, a fishing spot and more. You can read the full list of improvements and see more renderings of the space here.
The grand opening ceremony will be happening at the park on Thursday, October 2 at 2 p.m. You can find out more about the event here.
I’m excited that more of this is happening, and I love parks like this…the more the merrier IMO. However, what type of accessibility will someone who’s living in South Philly have? How, as a pedestrian or bicyclist would I get to it? Is it well connected to a neighborhood? It just seems segregated and hidden behind a Walmart, which doesn’t exactly promote getting there on foot. I’ve never been over there, so any insight would help.
It’s connected to the existing trail that plenty of people already use. Accessibility is not an issue.
We need better ped / bike connections to get from Front Street to the park.
I hope this is part of the long-term plans for DRWC, because especially in South Philly getting across a very poor experience.
Bike/ped accessibility is woefully inadequate from points west and south of the pier. There is no sidewalk through the Pier 70 Shopping Center. In fact the closest controlled intersection with a contiguous sidewalk/trail connection to this pier is at Columbus and Washington, 0.75 miles away.
Just the fact that it is there is cause for celebration. It will be connected to other waterfront parks and trails in the next few years. That’s the master plan for the waterfront. Now shoppers and employees can use it for some respite for connection to nature. I’m glad it has been built and finished within budget and on time!
Do you think any of these waterfront parks will eventually become hosts to a marina for live aboard boaters? Because Philly really needs more slips.