Currently, the main Lafayette campus and the Downtown Arts Campus and Easton Community are connected by jagged steps and an unsafe street, making it both dangerous and inconvenient for pedestrians to navigate. This discourages these communities from actively engaging and, consequently, leads to many issues of safety, social justice, and resiliency. These issues include both a physical and social disconnection between the two entities, economic barriers, and technical barriers. To address these issues, a creative design that is community-centric and promotes the historical connection between the Lafayette area and the downtown area aesthetically will be beneficial to both communities. After considering the issues discussed in this paper and previous failed proposals, two new designs have been proposed. These designs involve sustainable materials and an overall theme that encourages accessibility and celebrates the history of the surrounding area.
This proposal as well as both design options proposed serve primarily as a jumping off point, and not a plan set in stone. Our goal is to change the way people think about the connection between College Hill and Downtown Easton. It is more than just a geometry problem, and one that shines a light on many instances of injustice in the community. Future works that focus on addressing the connection between Lafayette and Easton must engage the community in all stages of design and promote accessibility and sustainability.
Epilogue
Going forward we hope that this project will be continued by future capstone students, be they Engineering Studies students, Civil Engineering students, or any other members of the Lafayette campus and greater Easton community. We recommend that a design competition be presented to Easton residents as well as Lafayette students to help develop the aesthetics of the bridge. It was important and intentional of us to present aesthetic options that pay homage to the area, but do not set in stone what the design should look like. It will take several years to fully design and flesh out this project. We hope this proposal creates an outline for future students to use and iterate off of. We want this project to be challenged and combed over to find areas for improvement and for people to create concrete designs, begin community outreach, and determine the feasibility of the Ahart Connection or the Bushkill Connection. Our job was to lay the groundwork to help improve walkability, accessibility, and equity. We hope that future groups will build on this groundwork, both metaphorically and literally, to create something that tangibly improves the lives of Easton residents and Lafayette students, arts students, and faculty.
Future contributors to this project should consider the following issues in their objectives when they take over the reins. This is by no means an exhaustive list, but it should provide them with specific problems to engage with and tackle. One of the biggest hurdles for the Ahart Connection is PennDOT, should future groups prefer the Ahart Connection to the Bushkill Connection, they will need to figure out how to get PennDOT to allow them to build over College Ave. According to Professor McGuire, PennDOT has nixed similar proposals in the past, so overcoming that barrier is tantamount to success. Continuing with the Ahart Connection, finding a way to be ADA compliant over the course of the whole bridge and trail will be difficult. The geometry of the area is challenging, as talked about in our technical analysis. Future teams will have to figure out if the Ahart Connection can realistically be ADA compliant.
Even more important than these design considerations are community outreach. As established earlier, Easton residents have been historically upset regarding Lafayette’s expansion and outward development. Once more concrete dimensions of the proposals can be presented, Easton residents must be consulted to assist with the design itself, as well as having their concerns addressed and seriously considered. This project is designed to be as much for Easton residents as it is for Lafayette students. If they are vehemently opposed to the design, then it should not be continued. Groups must find good sources in the community to begin communicating with. They can also send out surveys and begin laying out plans for a design competition.