Special Issue: State Boulevard Reconfiguration

Another end of an era...the Brookview neighborhood surrounding Spy Run Creek has flooded time and time again. Building on a floodplain has serious issues to begin with; but climate change, urban sprawl, and extreme weather has made this a problem area for many years due to street flooding and worse. Here is a Google Maps view of the area with a red line around the houses taken out. West State Boulevard will be straightened out and the bridge over Spy Run Creek will be raised to prevent West State from being closed during floods each year. Several years had record flooding in the neighborhood due to mainstem river flooding downstream; especially in 1978, 1982, and 1985, and record flooding in 2013 on the creek itself along with innumerable times before and thereafter as well. 

Over the years, the City of Fort Wayne has bought out many homes which used to stand along Spy Run Creek and demolished them to make room for green space. In fact, the entire block of Westbrook Drive that used to exist between West State Blvd. and North Clinton St. was removed after homes along it were demolished to make way for the new higher bridge that transports North Clinton Street over Spy Run Creek. This wider view shows more detail:

Here are the details of the reconfiguration, and here are pictures of the remaining houses as they were prepared for demolition:

Right now, this is what the neighborhood looks like; these shots taken from Eastbrook Drive just south of State Blvd.:

These shots were taken on State Blvd. east of the demolished area looking west:

One final shot looking north from Eastbrook Drive at its southern terminus:

One can barely recognize the area now without any houses there. It looks rather barren and alien and I can't help but feel a sense of sadness at what was. However, the good thing about this project is that these homes will no longer have to suffer constant flooding. The neighborhood will have more green space as well, and improved traffic flows will create less of a bottleneck condition for commuters. Last, but not least, I am really looking forward to completion of the Pufferbelly Trail running along the west end of the neighborhood!