Hoan Bridge Substitute Makes Economic Sense
A state-commissioned report shows that replacing the Hoan Bridge with a lower structure and road network opens up development potentially worth billions of dollars.
The idea needs more evaluation, but I've been arguing on this blog that the plan makes sense for local property taxpayers and state residents who should not have to fund another high-rise, over-engineered bridge.
Sound planning can make this a win for the city, suburbs and state.
Suburban officials who have been ranting and name-calling about the idea need to calm down and act like leaders.
More on this later.
4 comments:
Even though the state's bought into an urbanist concept for a possible Hoan replacement, I hope that the City stays vigilant about the importance of good, innovative architecture. Building your basic State design - like the 16th or 27th St viaducts - would be a disservice.
I hope we can build a new bridge that inspires as much as the Brooklyn Bridge or the famed European bridges spanning the Danube, Thames, or Seine.
Tp JPK:
Excellent point. Mayor Norquist held firm and prevailed on a design for the 6th St. Bridge that merged function and design.
So it can be done right.
Jeff Plale has to stop throwing out inflammatory one-liners and start being a serious state senator.
I seem to recall Mayor Norquist also rallied for better-than-what-was-originally-proposed design for the West Wisconsin Avenue Viaduct in the late-1980s/early-1990s.
Rather than having a standard, boring, highway department cookie cutter design (as was originally proposed), he ultimately convinced the designers to go with a structure that more closely resembled the graceful concrete-arched structure of the historic bridge that was going to be replaced. The aesthetics of the underside of the bridge was especially important, considering it passed right over the Pigsville neighborhood.
Another more recent scenario played out with the McKinley-Knapp Street Bridge in the Park East corridor. One of the early designs for that had a cutesy-fake-historical appearance to it. The design was eventually changed to have a much more sleek and modern aesthetic which is what actually got built.
I agree, Mark. It's a matter of the locals holding firm on design.
Federal funding will be tight.
Cost-cutting and efficiencies and economies do not have to mean "on the cheap."
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