Pittsburgh heralds the start of construction on cap over I-579

Margaret Watson has been waiting 60 years to see her Pittsburgh Hill District neighborhood reconnected to the Downtown business district.

She won’t have to wait much longer.

Elected officials and dignitaries gathered in the Hill District on Friday afternoon for a ceremonial groundbreaking that will kick off construction of the long awaited cap over I-579, known as the Crosstown Expressway. The $32 million project funded by federal, state and local governments and charitable foundations will feature a three-acre park over the expressway between Bigelow Boulevard and Centre Avenue. It’s scheduled for completion in 2022.

Watson, who will be 99 in July, said she hopes to be around when it’s finished.

“I just pray to God they’ll do it,” she said. “Talk is cheap.”

Watson experienced the demolition of the Lower Hill and the upheaval for hundreds of families and businesses that were displaced by Pittsburgh’s urban renewal programs of the 1950s. Her home on Wylie Avenue was razed along with a restaurant owned by the father of late singer Lena Horne where Watson worked as a waitress.

The city redeveloped the Lower Hill to build the former Civic Arena. The state, with city support, cut the neighborhood off from Downtown with construction of I-579.

Pittsburgh City Councilman R. Daniel Lavelle, a Hill District resident, issued a public apology on behalf of council and the Urban Redevelopment Authority, both of which played a part in orchestrating the Civic Arena project.

“To (Watson) I want to say I apologize, because unfortunately back around 1956, government decided it was a smart thing to do to remove her from her community, remove her and 8,000 other individuals from their homes,” Lavelle said. “I sit on the Urban Redevelopment Authority board, and it was the URA that played a role in that. I also apologize on behalf of city council who had to vote to move that forward.”

The park will feature paths from the neighborhood to Downtown, displays that tell the history of the Hill and artwork by local artists, officials said.

It will compliment the Penguin’s plans for redevelopment of the adjoining 28-acre former Civic Arena site. The team has dubbed the $750 million project the Centre District and plans for a residential, retail, office and entertainment complex. Construction is expected to begin this fall.

Not all residents are pleased with the plans.

Carl Redwood, who heads the Hill District Consensus Group, was critical because he said they do not include the amount of low-income housing that residents desired.

“The park is beautiful, but it’s not for the Hill District,” he said. “We need to connect the Hill to low-income housing. You just wait, if a lot of black people come down here (to the park) at night, they’ll call the police.”

Lavelle disagreed.

“That is absolutely not going to be the case,” he said. “This is our first step forward in righting the wrongs that occurred in the ’50s and ‘60s. This is first step forward to ensuring that the world-class development that the Penguins are planning is going to be for all of us, that we will all be equally comfortable here.”