RidingMatthew

maybe the saw your post on bikeforums and taking action! haha glad to hear something good is happening

Steely Dan

construction fencing is up at the site of the proposed bridge!

after more than a decade of planning, it's finally becoming real!

acidfast7

​​​​​​
Jesus, that is a long time. I assume that I would've moved by then, if it really is a decade wait.

Korina

@Steely Dan, that's awesome! Congratulations!

Having waited 20 years for a trail, I feel ya.

ETA: I should add, construction is scheduled to start (hopefully) in early 2021. So, really, more than 20 years. {sigh**

Chris Chicago

that look like an excellent spot for a bridge. does anyone have any insight why it costs so much? 3.4 million is what I read. it's 16 ft wide and 180 long.

https://blockclubchicago.org/2019/02...iles-of-paths/

Korina

Because government.

robertorolfo

3.4 million for a public project that requires a bit of engineering? That almost seems reasonable.

pdlamb

Can't say I'm surprised, looking at the spec (and the design). If you want cheap, you don't cross the creek at a 45 degree angle; that adds about 60' to the length of the bridge. I presume you want the bridge to carry a full load of people, dogs, strollers, bikes, etc. on a warm June Saturday afternoon without buckling or swaying. That's a heavy load to support on two ends, and it'll take a lot of steel (or rebar even if most of it will be concrete) to carry that load. So heavy, expensive footers to bear a heavy, expensive bridge. Add $50-100k to ship that monster from Minnesota, either for the ship or permitting and ******* along the interstate. To paraphrase the late senator, a hundred thousand here, a hundred thousand there, pretty soon it adds up to real money.

Darth Lefty 

I feel like around here $3.4M wouldn't even pay for the architect

Edit, I was wrong. $3mil for this project, ground broke in 2014, ribbon cut in 2017, hosted Amgen Tour of CA in 2018.

https://folsomcasharttrail.com/the-trail/about

Steely Dan

thanks for linking to that article.

my favorite part: "The entire project is expected to be done this fall."

with the glacial pace that this project has moved at thus far, i have a hard time believing that timeline, but if it does pan out, it's crazy to think that i might be rolling over the new bridge in a matter of months, and the most dangerous/annoying part of my daily commute completely eliminated, forever!

tcs

Senator Everett Dirksen is quoted as having said, "A billion here, a billion there, and pretty soon you're talking about real money."

tcs

Dallas (America's can't do city) spent $115,000,000 on a Santiago Calatrava designed dual arch suspension pedestrian and cycle bridge over the ditch that is the Trinity River. (Motor vehicle traffic is carried by a standard TexDOT highway bridge 'hidden' between the arches.) After ten years of planning and five years of construction the beautiful bike bridge was completed two years ago...but the state structural engineer has refused to certify the bridge is structurally sound because in certain wind conditions the support cables break away and pit&pendulum across the deck. So the bike bridge hasn't and can't be used and there is currently no plan or schedule in place to rectify the situation. As far as Dallas (America's can't do city) shakers and movers are concerned, that's okay, since they just wanted the arches for their addition to the city's skyline.

I-Like-To-Bike

You should see what kind of real money (4 Billion Dollar train station that is the 18th-busiest subway stop in New York City, tucked inside a shopping mall, down the block from another shopping center.) is spent by a can-do city like NYC on a Santiago Calatrava designed boondoggle.




https://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/03/a...oondoggle.html

BobbyG

Great news!
Back
Chicago, the city that works...funny.

no motor?

After reading the article that mentions the bridge should be open by fall I'm feeling optimistic about it, but after seeing some many road construction projects halt after the barricades are put up I'm wondering when they're really going to finish.

madpogue 

Wisconsin's "trail holy grail" has been to have a continuous bikeway across most of the state's southern beer-gut midsection, from Dodgeville on the west to Milwaukee on Lake Michigan. Madison sits at the hub, and with its path/trail system in place, you can ride this span completely on bikeways.... almost. The last section, just a few miles between the eastern fringes of Madison and the village of Cottage Grove, is still "vaporware". To the best of my knowledge, the rail corridor it's supposed to use hasn't served rail service in decades. It's been recognized as a missing link at least since I first came here in 1990. So this is fast becoming at least at 30-year "missing link"<br /><br />About 10 years ago, a young enthusiast cyclist was killed on one of the rural roads commonly used between these two points, by an inattentive driver. Made the news, and caused a buzz in the "community". But didn't push any buttons wrt. progress on this last link :shrug: .<br /><br /> And for those too young to have been a contemporary of Senator Dirksen, he said this when a billion dollars really amounted to something. As seen on a bumper sticker recently - "Trillion is the new Billion".

Korina

Hah! We win; it only took one stupid cyclist death to get rumble strips on our highways. One clear afternoon a distracted driver managed to cross two lanes and a 10 ft. wide shoulder to hit the only thing in the area; Greg Jennings, a popular local bicycling advocate and bike commuter, who was lit up like a Xmas tree and riding AFRAP. The cycling community, shocked and outraged, asked CalTrans why we didn't have at least rumble strips. CalTrans basically shrugged and said, 'You never asked.'

rossiny

A little off topic, but have you seen the roads in USA lately. I swear it looks like we do not have the billions needed to build and repair roads or some one is stealing money , or the road builders are purposely not building properly. I drove from kenosha , wi., to Chicago the other day. The roads are literally all ruined with the last Artic Polar Vortex, we had with that incredible cold snap.
I am just wowondering if bike safety would actually get our country back on track. Building our transit system that actually would have a developed rail system , linking then to a net work of smaller buses once you get off the train.There by reducing traffic dramatically and having bike lane every where actually with some type of barrier.. I have read that Mexico has smaller buses that run frequently. The damage that heavy traffic does to roads is mind boggling. The financial tax burden on us having g our love affair with cars is literally killing us and putting the financial burden on all citizens to the breaking point. I mean I just could not beleive the destruction on the roads
major roads with major pot hole stretches that if you are not careful will damage your car seriously. . I am a the sky is falling type of guy. But I really think that in terms of cars , the sky is really falling....

no motor?

I don't remember how long it took to get the second overpass built over Touhy going through Busse Woods, but the death at the street level crossing was needed to get the construction started. I'm glad that wasn't needed for this project.

robertorolfo

I agree with most of what you said. But that might mean that things at Wallmart cost a few dollars more (or maybe Wallmart can't function at all), and all their Amazon Prime junk might take 3 days to get there...

If anything, it seems like we are moving in the wrong direction...

Korina

Oh we have the money; it's being spent making tanks the military doesn't want in order to support jobs. ::facepalm::

tcs

"There comes a time in the affairs of man when he must take the bull by the tail and face the situation." - W. C. Fields

Korina

Nope.

madpogue 

^^^^ Kinda resembles the Cannonball Path bridge over our Beltline:

It was not constructed on-site, except for the supports. The four sections were factory-built, trucked in and craned into place. When they did the two central sections, they closed the main Beltline and had to get both in place overnight in one night. It drew spectators who stayed up all night to watch it happen.

Alas, it's also sort of a "bridge to nowhere", for the time being anyway. Another example of the topic of this thread. The southern terminus of the path is a major intersection of several parts of the area's bike infrastructure, at the far southwest corner of Madison. That section was completed, and the bridge installed, in 2013. But just north of this image, the path dead-ends on a busy street known for its speeders. The last section that will connect it to a more central cross-town path hasn't been started, although the rail corridor it will use is long since decommissioned. This "missing link" section goes through one of the poorest and most racially / ethnically diverse parts of town (and one of the most under-served, wrt. bike infrastructure), but it's not slated for completion until 2020.

When it's done, it will run right past the local bike co-op. Good thing, considering the 500-foot-long private access drive into the co-op, currently the only way to get there, is an unpaved virtual minefield that can be used to test the mettle of any MTB.

Steely Dan

the wait is finally over.

after eagerly watching the construction progress over the past 9 months, the bridge is officially open as of this morning (12/30)!!!

my daily commutes up and down the north shore channel trail have been forever improved.

the middle 6 miles of my 8 mile commute are actually entirely off-street now.

what an excellent belated christmas present!



the bridge is nice, a big and beefy cor-ten steel bow-truss span with asphalt road deck.

it's nice and wide with separate, marked bike & pedestrian lanes.

all-in-all, a nice bit of bike infrastructure that looks built to last.