moderne wrote: ↑Wed Feb 16, 2022 5:57 pm
Was looking at image of original Hannibal bridge. It was made out of wood. If designer Octave Chanute were whisked 150 years into the future he would be amazed at the design of the new bridge and that it could cross the river with such a simple and elegant design. It fits the old maxims "form follows function" and "less is more." An extreme for the wish for a fancy superstructure bridge is in Dallas where in a fit of bridge envy or river envy they put up two starchitect extremely tall bridges across the Blue River sized Trinity River when a wooden plank would do.
One of those bridges is really just two pedestrian bridges built around a straightforward highway bridge like what MoDot is building to replace Buck.
To your point, those pedestrian bridges still aren’t open 10 years after construction began because they weren’t designed safely and the wind caused stress to the structure/multiple cable rods to fail. Plus the pedestrian/bicycle bridges cost $115 million + whatever the various lawsuits cost.
Even LA knows that building a new large bridge should have the goal of it being an attractive and interesting part of your city is just as much a goal as moving vehicles.
Last edited by GRID on Fri Feb 18, 2022 8:17 am, edited 1 time in total.
Imagine if we had all these funding sources, I bet we could have made it prettier
The new, $588 million project, is the largest bridge project in the history of Los Angeles. It is funded by the Federal Highway Transportation Administration and the California Department of Transportation, as well as City funds.
The L.A. bridge replaces one that has been in countless movies and TV shows, and imagine this one will be also. Reminds me of the googi architecture southern California famous for.
KCPowercat wrote: ↑Fri Feb 18, 2022 11:32 am
Imagine if we had all these funding sources, I bet we could have made it prettier
The new, $588 million project, is the largest bridge project in the history of Los Angeles. It is funded by the Federal Highway Transportation Administration and the California Department of Transportation, as well as City funds.
The Broadway Bridge is a primary downtown bridge and somewhat of an icon of the urban fabric of the city. Some extra money should have been found to make the new one a little better. It was rushed through for some reason. That new bridge just looks horrible. Done deal and a dead horse I know.
KCPowercat wrote: ↑Wed Feb 16, 2022 11:50 am
In all seriousness that little strip of buildings was lost and isolated by our original Broadway bridge plan. They should have just taken them all and used the land for a public use. The owners of those remaining buildings are screwed.
A good designer could’ve found a way to avoid demolishing them and been able to knit them back into the River Market fabric. Unfortunately there are no good designers in MODOT.
I agree the design is not asthetically pleasing. I don't know their exact design/thought process however, as I know there were significant constraints with the airport and railroad tracks.
KCKev wrote: ↑Thu Mar 03, 2022 4:42 pm
How much to implode/destroy a usable bridge that could be something special if city planners had any kind of vision?
Vision isn't the problem. Funding is. We can't even take care of the parks we have. Private sector would need to step up if somebody wants to keep it up.
WoodDraw wrote: ↑Thu Mar 03, 2022 12:13 am
I know a lot of people are for this, so out of curiosity, what is the best managed park in the downtown area that shows KC can manage this?