Durham Freeway bridge set to be replaced, finally

by: Phillip Barron - May 19th, 2009   Filed under: Uncategorized 1 Comment

It’s about f*ckin’ time. Known as “The Ugly Green Thing” on Waymarking’s website, the pedestrian bridge over the Durham Freeway is not the most attractive entrance to the Bull City. Yet, if you’re traveling up 147 from either Research Triangle Park or from I-40 (as most people coming to Durham from Raleigh would), then this behemoth is what greets you.

By the end of May, that may all change.

From today’s Herald Sun…

Bridge replacement set to begin
The Herald-Sun
May 19, 2009

DURHAM — Demolition and replacement of the pedestrian bridge at Alston Avenue will begin later this month, resulting in overnight traffic detours on N.C. 147.

Beginning May 26 and lasting approximately two weeks, traffic on the Durham Freeway will be rerouted using Briggs and Alston avenues as detours from 11 p.m. until 5:30 a.m. as crews complete the demolition of the old pedestrian bridge.

After demolition is complete and the new bridge span arrives, crews will again close N.C. 147 during the same hours and using the same detour routes until the new bridge span is in place. The second closure will be announced once this date is set.

Read the rest at the Herald Sun’s website.

I wrote a column about the 147 bridge in May 2006, at which time the story was that the bridge was set to be demolished in the fall of 2006 and that the new bridge might possibly be open by the fall of 2007. When delays in fulfilling promises take this long, what should be celebrated as good news turns into bittersweet resentment.

new Durham Freeway (Hwy 147) bridge design, ca. 2006

new Durham Freeway (Hwy 147) bridge design, ca. 2006

new Durham Freeway bridge design, ca. 2006

new Durham Freeway bridge design, ca. 2006

American Tobacco Trail bridge supporters take note. As I pointed out in October 2007, for most of the time I have lived in Durham construction dates for the American Tobacco Trail bridge over I-40 and the new pedestrian bridge over 147 are indexical: no matter when you ask, the answer is always “they should be completed in about 2 years.”

So, I’ll believe it when I see it.

Design images courtesy of Stewart Design

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

by: Phillip Barron - May 25th, 2006   Filed under: columns 2006 Add Comment

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.

This column originally appeared in The Herald-Sun on May 25th, 2006

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

 
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