Suburban Bridge Design: Getting it right or wrong?
Lone Flag, Olio Road, Nikon D90 w/ Tokina 12-24 f4
In the past, I have blogged about a suburban bridge being built in the Fishers/Noblesville area of Indianapolis. As part of my ongoing commitment to see this project through to the end, I stopped last night on the way home from work, and snapped some photos of the progress as they inch closer to completion.
Workers have been spending a lot of time on the overpass itself over the freeway. I did not manage to walk up there, but I did explore the round about that is being constructed on the western side of the bridge. What I found, was a lot of pavement, a lot of concrete, and a lot of space for... pedestrians and bikes?? I laughed when I saw it but the wisdom cannot be discounted. The bridge is in fact being built to handle future development of the area. Where the bridge is currently located, sidewalks seem like a strange part of the project. There are corn fields on two corners, and development land on the other two. All 4 corners seem to be years away from being developed, if I had to guess.
Gravel sub-base for sidewalk, Nikon D90 w/ Tokina 12-24 f4
Last week, the streetsblog network shed some light on a project in downtown Cleveland where sidewalks and bike-ways were deemed un-necessary by Ohio Department of Transportation for a bridge project. They approached the subject from what I consider to be a very flawed point of view.
There will be a sidewalk on this side too
When I read about cities perpetuating bad practices, and then suburban areas creating winning situations, it really makes me wonder... aren't cities in all their wisdom suppose to be getting this right? History has proven that nothing is assured, so this stark contrast should not be surprising. However, I still get a good chuckle out of the irony.
Round about on the North side of the bridge, Nikon D90 w/ Tokina 12-24 f4
But still, are sidewalks like this really going to be used? Are people going to brave large expanses of un-regulated traffic? Notice how much space will need to be crossed in the photos. There will be two lanes of traffic in each direction once this is open for service later this year.
Looking South, Nikon D90 w/ Tokina 12-24 f4
In any case, it will look really nice when it is complete. There are plenty of subdivisions on the east side of I-69 and should any of the residents of these wish to travel across a couple of round abouts and the freeway, there will be plenty of nice sidewalks to get them there.
