So Much For The “Footprint” Excuse
Posted by Phoenix Woman on August 15, 2007
Tim Pawlenty, Carol Molnau and their obedient minon Peter Bell have been telling us that they can’t put light rail on bike lanes on the new 35W bridge because it would require a new footprint and footings, which they said had to be the same as the old bridge in order to save enough time and money to show enough construction progress for Pawlenty to boost his Vice-Presidential bid at the Republican National Convention get the new bridge completed by the arbitrary deadline of late next year.
But now, the first preliminary bridge design shows a ten-lane bridge (two more lanes than the old bridge had) with two separate spans of five lanes each. This would need — you guessed it — a totally different footprint and footings from the old bridge!
Oh, and adding light rail to the new bridge would be cheaper and easier than building a $200 million-plus tunnel bridge next to or on top of the Washington Avenue bridge, as is currently planned. Better excuses, please!
[UPDATE: Forgot to mention that the old bridge was eight lanes and 100 feet wide, but the proposed bridge will be 180 feet wide, but with only two extra lanes. So there’s plenty of room for LRT and a bike lane.]
3 Responses to “So Much For The “Footprint” Excuse”
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Mercury Rising 鳯女 
shrimplate said
What will be the price of a gallon of gas by the time this ten-lane concrete Ozymandias is completed?
How many lanes will be necessary when gas eventually hits the $10-per-gallon mark?
Phoenix Woman said
The funny thing is that the old bridge was 100 feet wide, whereas the preliminary plan for the new one has it 180 feet wide. Footprint? What’s that?
Meanwhile, the organic-solar-cell makers are getting closer to breaking below the $1-per-watt cost threshold. Once that happens, suddenly there will be less demand for petrochemicals.
whig said
Oh, something nice about Pittsburgh. I’m glad.