Public to see concepts for I-280 span memorial

5/10/2006

Three artists commissioned to develop concepts for a memorial to honor four ironworkers killed on the I-280 Veterans' Glass City Skyway project and all others who have worked there will present their ideas for the first time at a public meeting tomorrow in Toledo.

Mike Ligibel, planning administrator at the Ohio Department of Transportation's district office in Bowling Green and a member of the Veterans' Glass City Skyway Task Force, said state officials and task force leaders will be seeing the proposals for the first time along with the public.

"We have not seen them. That's why they [the artists] are coming - to show them," Mr. Ligibel said yesterday.

The presentation will be at 7:30 p.m. in the grand lobby at Martin Luther King, Jr. Plaza. The meeting site is the former main waiting room of Toledo's train station, two floors up from the current train station, located on Emerald Avenue off Broadway near the Anthony Wayne (High Level) Bridge.

Two of the artists are bringing models of their concepts for the memorial, and the third will show a computer rendering, Mr. Ligibel said. The meeting is expected to last about 90 minutes.

Afterward, members of the task force's Tribute Committee will form a subcommittee to review the three presentations and public reaction expressed during the meeting.

Deliberations are likely to take several months. After they're done, the committee will recommend a selection to the full task force, which in turn will present the proposal to the Toledo Metropolitan Area Council of Governments' transportation council, Mr. Ligibel said.

The memorial is intended to honor all workers involved in building the $220 million I-280 bridge over the Maumee River, but especially the four who were killed when a crane collapsed on Feb. 16, 2004. Three potential sites for the memorial have been identified: two along Front Street and one in Ravine Park II. The latter is off Dearborn Avenue and within view of the accident site.

Discussion at a previous meeting indicated a general preference for the Ravine Park site, but Mr. Ligibel said no final choice has been made.

"We don't want it so remote that people feel nervous about going there," he said.

- David Patch