Riverside Drive begins with a railroad. In 2015, The Waterfront Development Company secured three and a half miles of rail line running from Union Street in Allentown to Race Street in Whitehall Township. That corridor became the path for a new road, and the road became a way to reconnect the city to its river.
The plan is direct. The Waterfront Development Company has worked with city and state officials to build a new three-lane road, Riverside Drive, running along the western bank of the Lehigh River. The route extends to Hamilton and Union streets and realigns major entry and exit points in downtown Allentown.
The benefit is regional, not local. A realigned street eases pressure on the Front Street corridor, sharpens the geometry at intersections that have long frustrated drivers, and ties together neighborhoods that the old rail line once divided. Land owned and controlled by The Waterfront Development Company provides the project with the opportunity to extend the roadway further north in the years ahead.
A trail runs with the road. Zachary Jaindl, Principal, has worked with the Delaware and Lehigh (D&L) Trail to fold a walking and biking path into the project, knitting the northern and southern legs of the 165-mile network together along the riverbank. The street moves cars; the path beside it moves people.
The first segment is ready to build. Design is complete between Union Street and Furnace Street, and financing is secured. Construction follows. Riverside Drive is the backbone of The Waterfront, the 29-acre riverfront district rising where a steel mill once stood, and it carries that district outward into the wider Lehigh Valley.
See where the road leads at The Waterfront. Explore the offices and the River Walk. Schedule a visit.
- "Tricky Allentown Intersection Could See A Realignment Thanks To Waterfront Development" | The Morning Call