To carry out at once all the recommendations of this report would, even if it were possible, impose an altogether unreasonable financial burden upon the City and the contiguous boroughs. Such procedure is unnecessary and indeed impossible. But in many cases there is a crying need for the improvement already, or it is of such a nature that any delay is apt to involve a considerable increase in the cost and the difficulty of carrying it out.
Suggestive treatment of street junctions in outlying districts, Stuttgart
The most urgent general improvement of this sort is the establishment of new building lines on all main thoroughfares which it is proposed to widen; this in order to anticipate, as far as possible, the construction of new and costly buildings on the present street lines.
Of the specific recommendations made in this report it seems advisable to give the earliest attention to the following:
| In the Down Town District | Page | |
|---|---|---|
| The cutting of the Hump and the widening of certain streets in the Hump District as recommended | [10] | |
| The extension of Grant Boulevard to Webster Avenue | [11] | |
| The acquisition of land required for the proposed Civic Center | [11] | |
| The widening of Diamond Street | [17] | |
| The widening of Market Street | [17] | |
| The relocation of the Market | [18] | |
| The new connection between Penn and Liberty Avenues at Eleventh Street | [7] | |
| The elimination of the Try Street grade crossing | [10] | |
| The proposed bridge and tunnel to the South Hills | [49] | |
| Along Outlying Thoroughfares | Section | |
| Sixteenth Street bridge | 1 | [56] |
| Twenty-eighth Street grade crossings | 2 | [57] |
| Thirty-third Street improvement | 3 | [57] |
| Forty-third Street bridge | 6 | [59] |
| [1] Haights Run bridge | 9 | [59] |
| Hazelwood grade crossing | 18 | [64] |
| [1]Baum Street improvement | 20 | [65] |
| Center Avenue improvement | 21 | [65] |
| [1]Hamilton Avenue extension and connection with Kelly Street | 22 | [65] |
| Larimer Avenue extension | 24 | [66] |
| Batavia Street | 33 | [71] |
| Wilkinsburg grade crossings | 34 | [71] |
| Wilkinsburg-Edgewood connection | 35 | [71] |
| Rankin improvement | 38 | [72] |
| Duquesne bridge | 51 | [75] |
| California Avenue and Brighton Road extension | 52 | [75] |
| Lowry's Lane | 56 | [77] |
| East Ohio Street paving | 57 | [77] |
| Sycamore Street grade crossing and Bridge Street improvement in Etna | 60 | [78] |
| Allegheny River Boulevard as far as Main Street connection | 61 | [79] |
| Main Street grade crossing in Sharpsburg | 62 | [79] |
| Carson Street | 64b | [80] |
| Chartiers Avenue grade crossing | 65 | [80] |
| Crafton-Carnegie connection | 69 | [81] |
| Washington Avenue improvement | 72a | [82] |
| Thoroughfare to Beechview | 73a | [83] |
| Carrick connection from South Hills tunnel, probably Climax Street route | 75 | [84] |
| Twenty-second Street bridge approach—South Side | 80 | [86] |
In the following cases the actual improvements are not so urgent, but the new street locations should be established before expensive developments, which are apt to occur at any time, shall interpose serious new difficulties in the way of the proposed improvements:
| Section | Page | |
|---|---|---|
| Penn-Liberty connection at Howley Street | 5 | [58] |
| Fifth Avenue—Center Avenue connection at Soho | 12 | [61] |
| Ellsworth Avenue extension | 13 | [62] |
| Forbes Street extension | 39 | [72] |
| Etna improvement | 59 | [78] |
For other specific thoroughfare improvements recommended in this report there appear to be no very urgent demands at present. Generally speaking they should be carried out only as some special opportunity offers, or in anticipation of some obstructing development which cannot now be foreseen, or as a growing traffic shall demand.
But a thing of greater consequence than any one of these specific improvements, a thing of vital import to every taxpaying citizen of the present and future City, is the making of comprehensive and accurate topographical maps. It is only on the basis of such maps that all municipal engineering, and indeed much other work, directly managed by the City, can be planned and carried out with proper economy and efficiency. It is only on the basis of such maps that improvements in the city—details of city replanning—can be most economically determined. And in the outlying districts, where the future city is being built, such maps are absolutely essential to an intelligent planning or control which will avoid the heavy penalties that follow haphazard city growth, especially in such a hilly region.