Memorial Bridge closure?

[Starduster]

It sounds like, yes we can ride. 4 feet is not much space to lose. And this bridge *needs* attention, stat. (Now watch everyone jump on me when it gets crowded, lol)

[PotomacCyclist]

Wow. This is pretty significant news.

There’s another article about it:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/trafficandcommuting/memorial-bridge-symbol-of-us-strength-is-corroded-partly-shut-down/2015/05/28/bbe0e9b0-0582-11e5-a428-c984eb077d4e_story.html?hpid=z2

Aren’t the sidewalks wider than four feet? I thought they were, although I haven’t ridden across the bridge in a long time.

If it’s still possible to bike across the bridge, maybe the NPS should expedite Arlington’s plans to add new Capital Bikeshare stations along the Mt. Vernon Trail, including the proposed station at/near the Arlington Cemetery Metro station. While bikeshare wouldn’t be able to handle all of the visitor traffic between the National Mall and the Cemetery, it could help a little. Compared to the massive cost of repairing the bridge, a bike station would be very inexpensive and it could be installed almost immediately (depending on equipment availability).

[PotomacCyclist]

The bridge closure is the result of corrosion of various support structures. Is that due to the heavy use of road salt and other chemical de-icing treatments in wintertime? Couldn’t they use a different type of snow and ice treatment? Maybe add low-intensity heating coils integrated into the pavement? I don’t know how this works or if it would work. Could they have grooves in the pavement and embed heating elements in those grooves? Even if this is expensive, they could limit its use to just the bridge, not the nearby roads. Plus it’s super-expensive to have to repair the entire bridge. It’s also more wasteful and inconvenient to corrode the bridge, then close it off and repair it.

Is this impractical? If so, why? I’m not a mechanical or traffic engineer, just an interested onlooker. It just seems to me that there has to be a better way.

[kwarkentien]

According to the report on Channel 4 tonight on the 11pm news, both sidewalks will be totally closed as well as both curb lanes so it appears that there will be no biking across Memorial Bridge for the foreseeable future (December at the earlier but could be as late as next spring). As to the corrosion, I think it’s just normal oxidation of the bridge from the elements. Road salt may have an impact but I certainly don’t think it’s the main culprit. The bridge is almost 100 years old (started construction in 1929 and opened to traffic in February 1932) so such things are to be expected. But the NPS probably doesn’t do a good job of preventive maintenance to avoid these emergency repairs.

[PotomacCyclist]

OK. I was wondering about that.

This won’t affect me personally since I avoid Memorial Bridge already (because of the sub-par trail/road intersections). I never felt comfortable riding through there unless it was late at night. But this will foul up a lot of car commuter traffic as well as visitor traffic between the Lincoln Memorial and the Cemetery.

I’m also thinking that this might have a negative effect on the NPS plans for Memorial Circle and Columbia Island. As we found out over the winter, NPS is planning to upgrade the roads, trails and intersections around Memorial Circle. They hadn’t identified specific funding for that project at that point. Now NPS needs to pay for an overhaul of the entire bridge. The article says that the cost of the repairs would equal NPS’s entire annual nationwide transportation budget. Without a huge increase in funding, something will get left out of the mix. The bridge will have priority. That could mean the Memorial Circle project gets put on the backburner, to sit there for 5 years or more. I hope that isn’t the case, but where is the money going to come from?

Maybe they should ask David Rubenstein. He has put up a lot of his own money to help repair the Washington Monument after the earthquake. He is helping to pay for the Kennedy Center’s new expansion. He paid millions to buy a copy of the Magna Carta, then paid for a multimillion-dollar visitor gallery at the National Archives. He lives in Bethesda and has very deep ties to the DC region. I might have mentioned his name before in another thread. Even if I did, his name bears repeating. The public money isn’t there for the bridge, Memorial Circle and the rest of NPS’s national obligations.

[scoot]

Sounds like there are conflicting reports then as to whether the sidewalks will be open or not.

There is an awful lot of pedestrian and bicycle traffic using those sidewalks. Four feet narrower would be okay; they’re pretty wide already. But IMO it is unacceptable to close them entirely. If that is the plan, we should make some noise and fight for a temporary trail using one of the travel lanes. It’s much easier for motorists to detour to another bridge than for peds/bikes to do so.

The construction project at 27&110 may serve to reduce motorist demand for that bridge anyway.

[acorn]

Wouldn’t it be awesome if NPS said “you know, we don’t have the money to repair the bridge to make it safe for heavy traffic, and we won’t be getting it any time soon. Let’s just close it to motor vehicles entirely and turn it into a bike and pedestrian bridge!”

[bobco85]

Assuming that sidewalks and curb lanes would be closed, let’s look at the potential impact. Here is the walking/biking distance from the Reflecting Pool side of the Lincoln Memorial to the Arlington Natonal Cemetery Visitor’s Center:

• Normal: 1.1 miles
• Bridge closed, detour north via Roosevelt Bridge: 4.5 miles (3.4 miles extra one-way)
• Bridge closed, detour south via 14th St Bridge: 3.1 miles (2.0 miles extra one-way)
• Bridge closed, use Blue line Metro (Foggy Bottom to ANC): 1.0 miles (0.1 miles less but significant loss of time because, you know, Metro)

Even if they close the sidewalks and curb lanes, the following will happen just as it always seems to when some modes of transportation are effectively cut off from an area without useful detours: people will ignore the signs and either continue to walk/bike on the sidewalks or in the curb lanes. Officers would need to be stationed there 24/7 to prevent this from happening, and seeing as we’re getting into full DC summer temps, that’s not going to last long.

My prediction is that the flow of pedestrian/bicycle traffic across the bridge is unlikely to fade. It’s up to the NPS, however, on how to provide a safe route through there if they close off the sidewalks and curb lanes.

[Terpfan]

My suspicion is that they’ll close one side of the bridge first to fix it and then close the other side. Thus leaving one usable sidewalk. Still blows.

[scoot]

@bobco85 117004 wrote:

My prediction is that the flow of pedestrian/bicycle traffic across the bridge is unlikely to fade.

Unlikely to be eliminated entirely, sure. But numbers will decline sharply: many will be dissuaded if the only way to cross the bridge is to walk among cars.

[MattAune]

As of this morning, the right lane of vehicle traffic each way is closed. Both sidepaths were open as normal, except for the giant arrow-board being up on the curb causing a pinch point.

[Steve O]

@kwarkentien 116996 wrote:

According to the report on Channel 4 tonight on the 11pm news, both sidewalks will be totally closed as well as both curb lanes…

There is no way–repeat: no way–unless the bridge is essentially going to collapse, that they will close it to pedestrians. I have no idea how to count, but the number of people walking between the mall and the cemetery each year has to be seven digits long.

You learn something everyday: I had no idea that Memorial Bridge was a drawbridge.

[worktheweb]

I would love to hear the engineering explanation for reducing or eliminating the pedestrian and cyclist lanes on the bridge.

If we assume that the average pedestrian or cyclist is 200 lbs (I’m being generous, it would likely be less than that) and take google’s assumption that the average weight of a car is about 4,000 lbs we can start thinking about this numerically. For every one car you allow on the bridge, you could have 20 peds/cyclists. They’re keeping 4 our of 6 car lanes open. Using google again, the average vehicle is about 15 feet long. Let’s call that 20 with spacing in rush hour traffic. The bridge is 2,162 feet long. So each lane can hold something like 108 cars, at about 432,000 pounds. All 4 lanes come to 1.72 million pounds or the equivalent 8,640 pedestrians/cyclists. I’ve never seen anywhere near that kind of pedestrian loading on the bridge, ever. The max I’ve seen is maybe 50, which would be 2.5 cars. Clearly pedestrians are not the concern here.

I am all for not having a bridge collapse, but instead of knee jerk decisions these things should be thought through and the reasoning explained to the public that owns and is on the hook for the maintenance of the bridge. Personally, I like the idea of shutting it down to car traffic and allowing it to be a pedestrian/cyclist boulevard. Do that for a week and I bet you find some “emergency funding” to fix the issue. I just hope that they have it open for next winter, as it is one of the only safe routes to get into the district when there is snow.

[Anonymous]

@worktheweb 117014 wrote:

I would love to hear the engineering explanation for reducing or eliminating the pedestrian and cyclist lanes on the bridge.

If we assume that the average pedestrian or cyclist is 200 lbs (I’m being generous, it would likely be less than that) and take google’s assumption that the average weight of a car is about 4,000 lbs we can start thinking about this numerically. For every one car you allow on the bridge, you could have 20 peds/cyclists. They’re keeping 4 our of 6 car lanes open. Using google again, the average vehicle is about 15 feet long. Let’s call that 20 with spacing in rush hour traffic. The bridge is 2,162 feet long. So each lane can hold something like 108 cars, at about 432,000 pounds. All 4 lanes come to 1.72 million pounds or the equivalent 8,640 pedestrians/cyclists. I’ve never seen anywhere near that kind of pedestrian loading on the bridge, ever. The max I’ve seen is maybe 50, which would be 2.5 cars. Clearly pedestrians are not the concern here.

I am all for not having a bridge collapse, but instead of knee jerk decisions these things should be thought through and the reasoning explained to the public that owns and is on the hook for the maintenance of the bridge. Personally, I like the idea of shutting it down to car traffic and allowing it to be a pedestrian/cyclist boulevard. Do that for a week and I bet you find some “emergency funding” to fix the issue. I just hope that they have it open for next winter, as it is one of the only safe routes to get into the district when there is snow.

It would not be about structural integrity of the bridge, but about providing access for the people doing repairs, and keeping the public away from the work site. Curb lanes/sidewalks– the outer edges of the bridge– are where people and equipment will go to access the underneath. I’m not saying this can’t be done while also maintaining pedestrian access, but if there are restrictions, that will be the reason, not the weight of the people walking across the bridge.

[TwoWheelsDC]

@worktheweb 117014 wrote:

I would love to hear the engineering explanation for reducing or eliminating the pedestrian and cyclist lanes on the bridge.

If we assume that the average pedestrian or cyclist is 200 lbs (I’m being generous, it would likely be less than that) and take google’s assumption that the average weight of a car is about 4,000 lbs we can start thinking about this numerically. For every one car you allow on the bridge, you could have 20 peds/cyclists. They’re keeping 4 our of 6 car lanes open. Using google again, the average vehicle is about 15 feet long. Let’s call that 20 with spacing in rush hour traffic. The bridge is 2,162 feet long. So each lane can hold something like 108 cars, at about 432,000 pounds. All 4 lanes come to 1.72 million pounds or the equivalent 8,640 pedestrians/cyclists. I’ve never seen anywhere near that kind of pedestrian loading on the bridge, ever. The max I’ve seen is maybe 50, which would be 2.5 cars. Clearly pedestrians are not the concern here.

I am all for not having a bridge collapse, but instead of knee jerk decisions these things should be thought through and the reasoning explained to the public that owns and is on the hook for the maintenance of the bridge. Personally, I like the idea of shutting it down to car traffic and allowing it to be a pedestrian/cyclist boulevard. Do that for a week and I bet you find some “emergency funding” to fix the issue. I just hope that they have it open for next winter, as it is one of the only safe routes to get into the district when there is snow.

Not to mention that the weight issue is actually exponential…according to DOT/FHWA, a single semi, weighing ~20x more than a car, causes wear on the road equivalent to 9600 (yes, almost ten thousand) cars. I don’t know if that same scale applies to bikes and cars, but I’d wager it’s close, so a single car causes perhaps as much wear on the road (or stress on a bridge) as nearly 10,000 bikes.

http://archive.gao.gov/f0302/109884.pdf

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