BIKEPGH MESSAGE BOARD ARCHIVE

they're finally replacing that thing? it's about time!

Isn't this the same section that was previously closed because the bridge was "defficient?"

@jeff -- nah, that was the "lower section...." But, this bridge is deficient too.

Any idea of the maintenance history on this bridge? The news article said they put $300K into it a few years ago when they fixed the other bridge. It wouldn't surprise me if this bridge hasn't gotten serious attention in over 50 years, maybe not ever.

1 down, 5599 more to go...

Crud. That's my normal way up to work when I bike in. (Something I haven't done in a while, but I was planning on starting again on Monday.)

So I guess my best new route would be up Arlington and then either take a right at Sycamore or a right at the open part of McArdle?

(I guess I could do 18th to Warrington to Beltzhoover... but I'm not a big fan of Warrington and it's T tracks...)

Yea this kind of suxs. I'm going to check out 12th at Breed St. then to Brosville St and then to Arlington…

yeah this thing was for sure closed in the past decade for a year or so.

you could still take mcardle to windom. from windom take the city steps/bridge down to 10th street - that is, if you want to carry your bike.

1 down, 5599 more to go...

Stu, I'm making the numbers up here because I don't remember the actual ones but I heard Ed Rendell say that when he took office there were 4,8000 structurally deficient bridges in PA and they fixed 3,000 of them which got the number of deficient bridges down to 5500.

The point being that new bridges enter the category faster then they can get old bridges out. Kind of like Pittsburgh's population which is actually growing slightly but that's offset by the number of folks who cast of their mortal coil each year.

I have your numbers here, Jeff.

The real pisser is that these numbers are for state owned bridges. County and other municipal bridges aren't factored in because the data isn't readily available.

Oooh, new term! functionally obsolete

"functionally obsolete" is where the bridge isn't actually falling apart, but is too narrow or too weak for the road it's carrying. Example, built in 1935 when 500 Model Ts drove it at 30 mph each day, but now 2,200 SUVs are sailing down it at 50 mph.

good links from the state showing -ahem- their competence

ftp://ftp.dot.state.pa.us/TRANSFUNDMAPS/gis1577c02bridge.pdf

ftp://ftp.dot.state.pa.us/TRANSFUNDMAPS/gis1577c02iri.pdf

@stu, thanks! Is there term for the Birmingham Bridge which seems to be the complete opposite of "functionally obsolete?"

Although I guess it was a bit structurally challenged in the rocker bearings for a while.

functionally obsolete - see "Hulton Bridge" during rush hour.

These bridges wouldn't be functionally obsolete if people would just stay on their side of the river and refuse to cross, like witches, vampires, or Virginians.

Or we could just line the rivers with ferries...

These bridges wouldn't be functionally obsolete if people would just stay on their side of the river and refuse to cross, like witches, vampires, or Virginians.

Or if people would simply cross those bridges on bikes.

true, jeffinpgh, very very true

I saw something on NBC Nightly News a few days ago about how BILLIONS of Federal highway funds are going unused. They mostly are approved earmarks and the dingdong that created the earmark made a grammatical error or put incorrect information about the project in the legislation. They showed examples of how the incorrect highway name was listed for a project and they also showed a local crumbling bridge here in the Pittsburgh.

I was looking for alternates last night, and came up with a few. However I'm having problems with the one alternative that I think I like the most.

I can't find where the sidewalk that goes across the liberty bridge comes ends up. It looks like it should connect with the Blvd Of The Allies, but I can't find it on Google Maps.

Any advice? (The 2 other alts I'm looking at involve going up 18th street and then connecting to Warrington. Then either following Warrington down to its connection w/ Boggs or taking Beltzhoover up to where it meets up with Boggs.)

I think it ends with these steps on Ross Street opposite Firstside Park. Haven't tried it though.

Totally forgot about the steps on Ross St. and I used them all last summer. One thing you have to look out for is the Pendot detour signs set up on the Libery Bridge sidewalk. The wind blows them over. Sometimes they are in the middle of the sidewalk and you have to get off the bike to get around it.