BIKEPGH MESSAGE BOARD ARCHIVE

YEAH!

We are at week 40 of the project and it is only now just starting to look like it will someday be a bridge. I'm not terribly impressed.

I find that most construction projects look like a big hole in the ground (for buildings) and then the structure tends to shoot up over a short period of time. Add to that, the construction has went on over winter and our "rainy" season...not ideal construction conditions. For what it's worth. Hope it doesn't take much longer...

http://www.otma-pgh.org/batessecond lists an anticipated completion date of August 19, 2011

That page says the trail will be detoured only during Phase 3 (of the 7 construction phases). It will be opened as soon as construction gets to phase 4.

On the other hand, it also says phase 1 started on August 25 2010 (the same day the detour began). It appears to indicate the whole project will take a year, and that the detour will also last a year. So perhaps its claim that the trail will be detoured during only one of the seven phases is incorrect. It wouldn't be the first time that assurances to trail users were later revised away.

Incidentally, I was looking at the city's construction bid page (which had nothing useful on the Bates Street project), and noticed a project called "Sumner Street Jumperwalk". They were accepting bids to rebuild the jumperwalk on Sumner Street on the South Side slopes. I didn't know the term jumperwalk, and apparently it's only used in Pittsburgh, and only for city construction projects. It appears to mean "sidewalk with steps". Just wanted to share this rare word.

Jumperwalk, that is awesome! Might be worth ditching the myddrin account and switching to that.

At a minimum I'm going to start trying to get that into everyday conversation ASAP!

@myddrin, i agree, and i will also further that cause. it's such a quirky word, and it refers to a quirk that is somewhat unique to pittsburgh. it must become part of the local lexicon!

Jumperwalk is now on my Facebook page. Does it refer to just stepped sidewalks alongside driveable streets, or to the steps-only streets, too?

I'm envisioning some gadget from a 1950's popular science magazine

Completion date of August 19!!! Thats my birthday I'll be partying on the new bridge

Go up 'at jumperwalk o'er dere, den dahn th' rilly big hill and make a left where da jine iggle yousta be.

You spell "hiew" with two ells? Who knew?

Seems like there are only two examples of jumperwalks mentioned on the net. One's to be built on Sumner Street "FROM OAKLEY WAY TO A PT EAST OF BURHAM STREET". The other's going to be on North Winebiddle from Kincaid Street to Rosetta, replacing the existing steps.

It seems the Sumner Street project is six months ahead of the Winebiddle project, which is only supposed to be getting started this spring. For Winebiddle, the project work includes

"Replace current 4 foot wide Type 2 Concrete Steps with a new 5’ jumper walk and sidewalk as proposed in the drawings;

The old homes have previously been demolished;

During construction, saw cut street, construct new concrete curb, connect curb drain to exist inlet, construct new jumperwalk and single pipe handrailing;

Handicap ADA required ramps with a truncated dome will be placed at the beginning of the project limits"

The preexisting old steps are never called jumperwalks, only the new construction. So maybe they're different from steps.

The ADA mention above is curious too, but North Winebiddle, at least, seems far too steep for ADA-compliant ramps, which have a maximum grade of 8%. That stretch of Winebiddle looks to be around a 20% grade in Google Earth (and the P-G says the street is 23%, per the Pgh Hills page, but I don't know which part exactly). In fact, the segment of Winebiddle just north of the construction is a paper street (stairs only, no road).

I think perhaps someone needs to climb up Sumner Street and take photos (assuming the city's actually finished construction by now), so we can all see what a jumperwalk really is. A mere sidewalk with steps, or something odder? Perhaps this is a task for Wheelset of Fortune.

Ramps with Truncated Domes:

It's braille for your feet, so you can read braille while you're reading braille - if you're walking and reading.

i'm thinking the jumper walks may be the sidewalk/stairs combination that doesn't stay level with the street. so you have step step step, sidewalk, step step step, sidewalk, etc. think greenwood in morningside.

In Japan the subways and train stations all had braille for the feet leading to all the places an independent blind passanger could want to go - ticket booths (with braille buttons and voice assistance), customer service, entry ways and platforms and escalators and elevators and all that jazz... Pretty cool.

I think it'd be cooler if a jumperwalk was actually a series of these things installed on like a ski-lift type system: http://www.amazon.com/Jolly-Jumper-Walk-Toddler-Walking/dp/B003A58LKS Jolly Jumper Walk indeed. Though I don't see an easy way to get in/out independently. But that's why we pay the engineers the big bucks, yes?