10th Avenue Bridge

One of the things discussed last evening at our community meeting on traffic issues related to the bridge collapse was the opening of the 10th Avenue bridge.


Now that the last victim has been recovered we will need to reach a decision about this very soon. There will also be a great deal of pressure to open it fully before the University semester begins on September 4th.


Suggestions range from keeping it closed to opening:

• only to bikes and pedestrians,
• or to bikes, pedestrians and public transit,
• or to all of the above plus official University vehicles,
• or to all traffic.

Even if we open it to all traffic, there have been some ideas about making that work better including:

• adding a fence to the upstream side to increase safety in case people walk or bike out and want to see the site and
• putting in a physical barrier of some kind (perhaps semi-permanent plastic bollards) to prevent northbound cars exiting 35W at Washington Ave from changing lanes and taking a left at 15th Ave S (near the Holiday Inn) to cross on the 10th Ave bridge. This would prevent the 10th Ave bridge from becoming the de facto northbound detour of I-35W.

It would be useful to me to use this blog to hear your thoughts and concerns about this and perhaps engage in a little discussion before the decision is made (this week perhaps). That way I can provide feedback to our City staff.