BIKEPGH MESSAGE BOARD ARCHIVE

I think you need an engineering study before you get the cost estimate. And the engineering study itself can be expensive. What would be good is to connect with someone or a group of people who are interested in this project, who can help get this process started. For example what sometimes happens is a professor takes on the project and devotes student resources to it. Then there's something to base the engineering study on and you don't have to spend money to get it started. You can also write proposals for a feasibility study to get things started. You would do well to talk with local government, trail organizations, and community resources to connect with people who are similarly interested in this.

FWIW, there is at least a trail from the ballfields in Brighton Heights down to woods run road. It's not as nice as a bridge, but at least a somewhat doable connection. It's called the Vinnie Hill Trail. http://www.brightonheights.org/news/vinnie-hill-trail-proposal/ I would love to see a bridge to reconnect Davis ave for Pedestrians and bikes. It would be a much nicer / easier access to Riverview Park.

The Vinnie Hill Trail was barely passable due to heavy grass / knotweed growth on Monday. Wondering if there is any organization which maintains this? or if city parks department would?

Looks like this land is owned by the City as part of Brighton Heights Park--I'd suggest 311-ing it; seems at worst they'll tell you who maintains the trails there, nu?

311 ticket created.

Track down Sean Brady at Hollow Oak Land Trust.  He had a concept, and some labor to make this connection work, as I recall.

I just moved on to Davis near the bridge. I don't want a car bridge back there, but am completely for a bike / ped bridge. There was a recent article (may) stating that a bike / ped option would cost $9mm while a car bridge would be between $10mm and $15mm. I don't understand why a bike / ped option costs nearly the same as a full blown car bridge.

Somewhat related -- same part of town, similar unusable bridge -- is the Wilksboro Street bridge. We had a recent discussion about it here, in which it appears there was money at some point to make this bridge functional again. How many more defunct bridges are there around the city, which could make bike/ped travel much easier? And @acavre, I'm with you -- I don't know either why a bike/ped bridge costs nearly as much as a vehicular bridge.

We've discussed all of these previously, though not in one place:

• Rankin Hot Metal Bridge (near Carrie Furnace)
• Brilliant Branch Bridge (just east of Highland Park Bridge)
• pedestrian bridge from Nichol Ave in Stowe to Route 51 (recently torn down? It's missing from the late 2016 Streetview, from route 51)

Those first two would make bike commuting much easier, for many people (if the right trails were built connecting to them).

One more, the proposed marsupial bridge under the Glenwood Bridge, discussed here. Please read the end of that article, which discusses how some of the early engineering on such a project could be done for not a lot of money.

Bridge cost does not scale linearly by width for a project like this because much of that cost is in the substructure - the foundations, abutments, and piers - which largely would remain the same whether you're carrying a ~12' wide bike/ped trail or ~40' wide street.  Either way, you still have to put the infrastructure in to span a 400' wide valley more than 50' in the air. The estimate range putting them within a million dollars of each other is almost certainly wrong; you'd still need probably two more beam lines and twice the deck area with a car bridge.  But it probably wouldn't be out of line if the bike/ped option was around 2/3 the cost of the auto option for that type of street.  Different story if we were talking about a six-lane interstate bridge, but the difference in width of a neighborhood street just isn't that much in cost terms than a trail. Either way, this connection really needs reestablished for the Brighton Heights neighborhood.  Take care of your infrastructure!

Pedestrian bridge from Nichol Ave in Stowe to Route 51 (recently torn down? It’s missing from the late 2016 Streetview, from route 51) I think this was called the Preston bridge. I'm not sure if they tore it down to permit taller trains, or just because without any upkeep it was becoming a hazard. Here's a Trib article from 2012 about how it might have been used as a trail bridge.