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The Outspokin’ Cyclist: New bike, pedestrian bridge has community backing

Phillip Barron
The Herald-Sun
May 25th, 2006

DURHAM — “(The process) has enabled me to make some really wonderful connections with the people who make Durham work,” says Iona Hauser of Stewart Engineering, who has completed the design plans for a new bicycle and pedestrian bridge over 147. The new bridge, a “graceful arch, framed by abutments that reference Durham’s historic and unique rectangular smokestacks,” will replace the existing pedestrian bridge linking Lakeland Street to the south and Gillette Avenue to the north.

Construction of the new bridge will begin this fall, and it may open as early as the fall of 2007.

The existing bridge was difficult to patrol because people couldn’t see onto the bridge from the street, and because it sits between two different police divisions. After the two neighborhoods linked by the span expressed concerns that the bridge harbored and facilitated crime, the city closed the bridge in 1995.

The consensus is that the failure of the first bridge was one of design.

In 2003, a municipal agreement to replace the bridge was signed, federal funds have since been secured, and Stewart Engineering won the contract to design a new bridge.

But given the failure of the old bridge, designing a new one — one that will satisfy everyone’s concerns — was no easy task.

Stewart Engineering met with community groups, city officials, bicycle advocates and anyone else who wanted input on the new bridge design. Hauser says she was “blown away by the commitment to the future of the city at every level — city staff, police, community volunteers, downtown developers, everyone.”

The new bridge features a well-lit, open design with good line of sight onto the walkway from both the approach and from 147. Entrance ramps on either end allow cyclists to ride right onto the 10-foot-wide path.

And then, Raleigh’s new pedestrian bridge over I-440 stirred up the imaginations of Durham officials.

Bull City boosters challenged Hauser to design the new bicycle and pedestrian bridge over 147 in such a way that it says Durham. The rectangular “smokestacks” anchoring the new bridge do just that, “but I’m partial to the crowning element — the ‘Durham blue’ LED lighting that traces the arch of the bridge” at night, Hauser says.

Beth Timson of Durham’s Department of Parks and Recreation adds that the 147 bridge is part of Durham’s extensive and growing greenway system. A trail was connected to the bridge until the span closed, at which time the city rerouted that trail over to nearby Bacon Street. When the new bridge opens, Parks and Rec plans to return the trail to connect with the bridge.

“I can’t wait to walk across it and see it at night on my way to a Bulls game,” Hauser says.

For more information on Durham’s greenways, visit http://durhamnc.gov/departments/parks Design photos compliments of Stewart Engineering.

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