There was good news on Saturday for people who have long hoped that Buffalo’s outer harbor would become a scenic and easily accessible place for walkers, bicyclists, fishermen and picnickers.

Construction work began on the final phase of the Outer Harbor Parkway, which will replace an ugly 3.3-mile section of Fuhrmann Boulevard and make the waterfront and the Tifft Farm Nature Preserve more accessible to the public.

By this time next year, a once desolate section of waterfront land will have bike paths, boardwalks, picnic areas, landscaping and plenty of street-side parking, said Rep. Brian Higgins, D-Buffalo.

And officials promise that the parkway — which will have a landscaped median and historical lighting fixtures — will make the ride there an enjoyable experience.

“This is an important final phase of an $80 million project that I think will breathe new life into an area that has not really been accessible to people or cars for the past 60 years,” said Higgins, who has been pushing for waterfront development since his days as a Common Council member in the 1980s.

Higgins was joined at the event near

Gallagher Beach by representatives of the state Department of Transportation, the Olmsted Parks Conservancy, Tifft Farm, several community organizations and Union Concrete and Construction of West Seneca, the contractor for the parkway project.

One of those present was Marge Ryan, 72, a lifelong South Buffalo resident and president of South Buffalo Alive. People with big plans for the waterfront have had news conferences and artistic renderings, Ryan said, but in the last couple of years, she has witnessed actual progress.

“I didn’t know if I’d ever see it in my lifetime, but I’m seeing it,” said Ryan, smiling broadly as she looked out over a boardwalk along Gallagher Beach. “I’m overwhelmed with what they have done so far. When it’s finished, I think it’s going to make South Buffalo the area that everybody wants to live in.”

Work on the parkway began last year, with the goal of simplifying and beautifying the drive along Fuhrmann Boulevard, changing Fuhrmann from an unpleasant one-way maze to a two-way parkway with plenty of green space.

The parkway runs along Route 5, one of the main routes into the city for Southtowns residents. Construction began Saturday on the last phase of the parkway, from Tifft Street to the city’s border with Lackawanna.

On Thursday, northbound traffic into the city was shifted from Fuhrmann to Route 5. Later this month, the southbound section of Route 5 along the outer harbor, which has been closed, will reopen.

A new bike path, a boardwalk and new parks are already open to the public near Gallagher Beach and the Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority’s Small Boat Harbor.

“Some other very cool things are going to be happening here and on the Inner Harbor in the next 36 months,” Higgins said. “There will be more announcements.”