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New pedestrian bridge begins to swoop across Storrow Drive
By adamg on Sat, 10/28/2017 - 11:22am
Troublewithtribbles reports the first span of the new Frances Appleton pedestrian bridge across Storrow Drive from Beacon Hill to the Esplanade went up overnight. It's scheduled for completion by August. Frances Appleton, you may recall, married Henry Wadsworth Longfellow - and the new bridge is part of the Longfellow Bridge reconstruction work.
Copyright Troublewithtribbles. Posted in the Universal Hub pool on Flickr.
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Comments
Great to see but …
It would have been nice for this to have been an earlier action item, not to have sat as a construction site for the last two years. (Maybe there are good reasons this didn't happen.)
It's More Profitable To Drag Construction Projects Out For Years
I also imagine the MDC/DCR has their hands all over this project. For them, dragging things out as long as possible provides more excuses for do-nothing jobs at the patronage laden agency.
Umm,
Actually, no its not more profitable to drag a construction project out for years, especially where the contractor has no right to delay costs.
There's an old union
There's an old union expression that may apply here-don"t kill the job.
Well-
Can’t say they were good reasons, but there were definitely circumstances that delayed this part of the project.
Glad to see it finally getting installed. And I love the naming of it for Fanny.
Who is doing what
At the moment I believe the bridge and the ped bridge are one construction project. At the last Longfellow meeting I asked and was told that 'everything' has to be done by June '18 - so there was no rush to finish the ped bridge earlier
Thanks for the update!
Thanks for the update!
More on Fanny Longfellow.
Parkway
A parkway so leisurely and limited in speed that the only way across is 15 feet over it.
Yeah, as I was crawling on
Yeah, as I was crawling on Fresh Pond Parkway last week, I kept thinking "This is nice... for no one at all". I'm an avid outdoors person, I love green spaces, but I think the purpose of our Parkways has been left behind by modern times (honestly, the concept of driving for entertainment boggles my mind - you're in a steel cage, ffs!). They're major thoroughfares these days. And the fact that DCR does little about speed, crosswalk, or red light enforcement makes them so much worse.
"Driving as entertainment"
Once upon a time -- within my lifetime, even -- driving could be a pleasure. Picture driving on 128 in Waltham with no other cars in sight. Or Rte 2, or 3. FPP probably only in the very early morning.
It really is a whole different experience when you don't have to pay attention to what that fallible human in the other car is doing. The spoilsports in the legislature even made a law against "aimless driving."
I try to drive as little as
I try to drive as little as possible. But when I do need to drive north-south in West Cambridge, outside of the afternoon rush Fresh Pond Parkway is by far the most pleasant way to go.
Look, a Storrowing virgin.
Look, a Storrowing virgin.
Good thing I can't do photoshop worth a damn
Add a virgin shrine and you get "Our Lady of Storrows".
Write up on the construction of the arch
http://www.structuremag.org/?p=12207
Took a look at it today from
Took a look at it today from the sidewalk of the Longfellow. It only covers the outbound side of Storrow (and it's far from complete for even that portion, no bridge deck or anything).
Would be cool if they just complete the one side first, to allow for stunts and stuff off the dead end and over the inbound side of Storrow.
Looks nice. But my first
Looks nice. But my first thought is: will it make it quicker and more pleasant to cross the road? If it adds distance due to its location or ramp length, I'm no longer in favor.