Page 286 - Beyond Decommissioning

Experience and lessons learned 267

One US case of railway converted to trail is given in American Trail (n.d.). The
Blackwater Heritage State Trail, Florida, follows the route of an historic railroad. Built
in the early 1900s, the original rail line was decommissioned in the 1970s. In 1993, the
US Department of the Interior, Federal Lands donated the property to the State of Flor-
ida. This multiuse trail was opened to public fruition in October 1998. The 18 km cor-
ridor offers accessible hiking, cycling, horseback riding, and other outdoor
recreational experiences. The trail also provides the opportunity of observing a num-
ber of animal species including the American alligator, snakes, river otter, bobcat, red-
headed woodpecker, as well as native plants. It was estimated that the trail contributed
$3 million a year to the local economy.
A different concept of railway conversion is exemplified by New York City’s
(NYC) High Line. The High Line was formerly a freight rail track, which was discon-
tinued in 1980. The 2.3-km-long path re-emerged to general use as one of the best
NYC Parks, which runs from Hudson Yards to the northern rim of Chelsea. Today
it’s an urban playground showing wildflowers, greenery, and outdoor art, while offer-
ing visitors the best views in NYC. Converting the railway into an urban park began in
2006 with the first tract opening to the public in 2009, the second in 2011, and the third
in 2014.
Under the direction of the landscape architecture firm of James Corner Field Oper
ations, the dismissed rail track was redesigned as a “living system” with the contribu-
tion of such disciplines as landscaping, urban design, and ecology. Since 2009, the
High Line has become a symbol of contemporary landscape architecture. The concep-
tion of the High Line was inspired by the 4.8-km-long “Promenade plant ee” (tree-
lined walkway), which was completed in Paris in 1993 (see below).
The High Line is owned by the City of New York, and maintained and operated by
Friends of the High Line. Founded in 1999 by community residents, Friends of the
High Line fought for the High Line’s preservation and conversion at a time when
demolition of the structure was a concrete threat. In addition to supervising mainte-
nance, activities, and public events, Friends of the High Line raises the maintenance
and operations funding from both private and public sources (High Line, n.d.). There
is now a High Line Network connecting 18 similar projects in North America, iden-
tified under the common name of “rail-to-rail”, and sharing experience and guidance
on installing and managing parks in disused spaces (Dezeen, 2017d). A specific objec-
tive of this network is to ensure that other projects of this kind avoid the gentrification
and inequality that occurred in the High Line neighborhood as a consequence of the
redevelopment. Actually as the project created a “prestigious” environment, it also
spurred a cascade of luxury developments, which caused rents to rise and local busi-
nesses to move away. As stated by the High Line creator “When we opened, we real-
ized the local community [New York City Housing Authority] wasn’t coming to the
park, and the three main reasons were: they felt it wasn’t built for them, they didn’t see
people like them there, and they didn’t like the programming.” To partly correct the
trend, the organization included job training and school trips into the park’s program-
ming. And Washington DC’s 11th Street Bridge Park will have job-training work-
shops to allow those living in a nearby low-employment area to draw a direct
benefit from the redevelopment (Fig. 6.51).