After input from the public, consultants have whittled down 59 possibilities to these options:

Spanning the Niagara River just south of Grand Island and building a plaza in the Town of Tonawanda.

Crossing the river at the International Railroad Bridge corridor, north of the Peace Bridge, for a truck-only bridge that would connect to the Niagara Thruway but not the Scajaquada Expressway.

Staying at the current bridge location; the current plaza would be expanded or it would be moved north or east of its current site.

Peace Bridge officials also want to retain for more study a "shared border management" approach that would allow many inspection and administrative facilities to be shifted to the Canadian side of the border.

That would allow most of the existing U.S. plaza to be available for park expansion, Vincent P. "Jake" Lamb, manager for the binational review, said in a meeting with the Buffalo News editorial board.

Lamb said he will meet this week with Federal Highway Administration officials to discuss the review's scoping report and the alternatives he is recommending be retained for further consideration.

"This is something we're very happy with. Our group thinks these three corridors are probably the most viable," said Bill Banas, head of the Transportation Action Group for the New Millennium Group of Western New York, an organization of about 500 members who have campaigned for a new, landmark bridge.

"We need to look at all three in greater depth, especially the two that are off site, in order to make the best decision."

The International Railroad Bridge corridor became one of the corridors chosen for more study only after it emerged as the second-favorite choice among those who voted for Niagara River alternatives at a public workshop last month.

Lamb previously had expressed strong reservations about an International Railroad corridor location, but he said the authority's binational board had urged that the site be included among the surviving options.

Retaining that corridor, plus the other corridor just south of Grand Island with a U.S. plaza in the Town of Tonawanda, shows the bridge authority is willing to look beyond the existing Peace Bridge location, said Paul J. Koessler of Buffalo, chairman of the Peace Bridge Authority.

Lamb came under criticism from some participants in the environmental review after a public workshop in September. At that workshop, the eight options that earned the highest public scores all included keeping the existing bridge corridor.

Afterward, Lamb said he would recommend dropping consideration of Niagara Falls, Grand Island, the Town of Tonawanda and the International Railroad Bridge as alternative locations.

Since then, two of those other corridors have been added.

"I think this will diminish the criticism," Koessler said. "I don't think it will end it."

Jeff Belt, a New Millennium Group member, said he is satisfied with the environmental review's progress.

"Some of the ideas we're looking at now have emerged only in the last couple of months," Belt said. "A few years ago, we couldn't have figured out how to get the plaza and connections to work as elegantly as they're being sketched now by the engineering team."

Belt said he was aware of the criticism that followed the second public workshop in September.

"I didn't think the process was rigged or anything like that," he said. "I thought there might have been some mistakes made in the process, the key among them that Jake was overworked and wearing too many hats."

Belt added: "I think Jake is dealing with a lot of pressure from all sides. I just compliment the job he is doing and thank him for doing it, because he could be retired on a Caribbean island right now, but he's up here in Buffalo."