Thursday, June 15, 2006

Riverlife Competition dot org

The winning California design team should have made a trip to Pittsburgh in the winter. The sort of curved ramp swinging way out from the bridge will be unwalkable in windy and cold weather and will also as positioned as a block the view to the Point for much of the drive over the bridge.

The rendering makes it look exciting but the reality in the cold dark of winter is much different. For women walking the bridge they would be feel unsafe and trapped by having them so far away from the the flow of traffic.

I'm confused about the walkway being on both sides of the bridge, upstream on the city side and downstream. Getting double the walkway woul drequire a considerably greater budget.

It would be much better to make one bridge span and then make another bridge span elsewhere. How about a bridge span under the Liberty Bridge? Or, perhaps we need better bikeways from Stuben Street through the West End Circle so one can get on a bike path at the foot of the West End Bridge. How can one get down from Mt. Washington or around on Rt. 51 from Brookline and zip onto that bikeway on the bridge. So, lets not cross the river twice where one functional bridge passing is necessary and the second is just silly.

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