Walkway to Gateway - Facilities | Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority

5/21/2012 4:47 AM

Facilities: Walkway to Gateway

RTA�s Walkway is gateway to sports, fun and more

In April 1994, RTA opened the Ronald J. Tober Walkway to Gateway � a 1,005 foot elevated, enclosed, climate-controlled glass-and-steel walkway, suspended under the Huron Road bridge, connecting the central Tower City Rapid Station to the Gateway Sports Complex.

The Walkway overlooks the Flats, the historic Cuyahoga River, and RTA�s Rapid Transit tracks.

The Gateway Complex opened in 1994. It includes two major sports/entertainment facilities:

Quicken Loans Arena ("The Q"), One Center Court, is home to the
- Cleveland Cavaliers of the National Basketball Association (NBA).
- Lake Erie Monsters of the American Hockey League (AHL).
- Cleveland Gladiators of the Arena Football League (AFL) and the
- Cleveland Crush, a women�s football team.
It also hosts circuses, concerts, figure skating shows, Mid-American Conference (MAC) basketball tournaments, Harlem Globetrotters, rodeos, monster trucks, professional wrestling, political rallies and other events. The Q was formerly known as Gund Arena.
Progressive Field, 2401 Ontario St., home to the Cleveland Indians of Major League Baseball in the summer, and the recreational Snow Days in the winter. It was formerly known as Jacobs Field.

How it works

The ADA-accessible Walkway connects the Gateway facilities with Tower City, a multi-million dollar redevelopment of the former Cleveland Union Terminal. The work was completed in 1990.

Tower City Center includes RTA�s main hub for four Rapid Transit lines. Located at 50 Public Square, the area is served by many RTA bus lines.

RTA�s Transit Police open the Walkway two hours before an event begins, and close it 90 minutes after the event ends.

Fans enter the Walkway from Tower City Center, near the food court and the Cinema lobby. The Walkway goes underneath Ontario Street to Quicken Loans Arena, where stairs, escalators and elevators take fans up 1-1/2 stories to the Arena lobby.

The Walkway to Gateway makes getting to events at Progressive Field and The Q even easier for RTA riders (click for larger image)

For those fans headed for Progressive Field, a quick stroll across Gateway Plaza puts them inside the ballpark.

Walkway benefits

Enables fans to make a much greater use of public transit to attend events.
Shields fans from both inclement weather and traffic on Ontario Street, a major thoroughfare. For thousands of fans, transit is now more convenient than driving. You never have to go outside.
Decreases congestion and improves safety and air quality by removing cars and pedestrians from roadways. In the first 16 months, the Walkway was used by more than 940,000. It is estimated that the Walkway helped remove 625,000 car trips and 5 million vehicle miles in those 16 months.
In 1996, the Walkway was featured in a federal publication, "Innovations in Transportation and Air Quality: Twelve Exemplary Projects".

Funding and Construction

The Walkway cost $13.7 million to build. About 97 percent of that came from the Federal Transit Administration (FTA), including $7.3 million for Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality (CMAQ).

URS Consultants designed the facility, with National Engineering & Contracting Co. acting as general contractor. Planning and construction took more than two years.

Who is Ron Tober?

Ron Tober served as RTA General Manager for more than 11 years, from 1988-1999. A Cleveland native and lifetime transit professional, he contributed greatly to improved transit service, and completed numerous capital projects here.

On Nov. 23, 1999, the RTA Board passed resolution 1999-169, renaming the facility, "The Ronald J. Tober Walkway to Gateway".

The resolution salutes Tober for "leading the transformation of RTA into a high-performance transit authority". Many capital improvement projects were completed during his tenure.

Public art

Fans using the Walkway can enjoy 12 murals of old and new Cleveland by Los Angeles artist Roberto Delgado.

The murals are on the Walkway�s north wall. The south wall consists of mostly windows, offering a great view of Cleveland.

Delgado worked with a team of six artists to design and fabricate the murals, using a mixed-media technique, incorporating brushed-on acrylic polymer color graduations, stenciled spray-paint monotypes and photocopy appliqu�s on cut aluminum plates.

The images were created from photos of Cleveland provided by the Western Reserve Historical Society and the Cleveland Orchestra archives.

Local artist Adbulraqib A. Salih participated with Delgado on the work. A Cleveland native, he is a graduate of the Cleveland Institute of Art.

The public art installation was an effort of RTA's Arts in Transit Committee.