Memorial Bridge closure?

[acorn]

“Emergency partial shutdown of Memorial Bridge”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/dr-gridlock/wp/2015/05/28/emergency-shutdown-load-limits-coming-to-part-of-memorial-bridge/?hpid=z2

“The National Park Service, at the recommendation of the Federal Highway Administration, will close both curbside lanes and four feet of the adjoining sidewalk across the drawbridge of the Arlington Memorial Bridge prior to Friday morning’s rush hour, officials said Thursday. Officials also will post a 10-ton load limit across the entire length of the bridge, which effectively eliminates most bus traffic.

Officials said the lane closures will remain in effect until emergency repairs are complete — likely six to nine months.”

What does that mean for bikers? Will we still be able to ride on the remaining sidewalk?

Topic

[huskerdont]

@creadinger 136046 wrote:

Did anyone else hear the new news today from NPS that if the bridge doesn’t get a complete rebuild of the undercarriage it will be a pedestrian/bike bridge within 5 years and get a little excited??

Of course, that’s not going to happen. They’ll get the $250,000,000 from somewhere and all the other projects for improving ped/bike infrastructure will likely suffer as a result… like that gravelly point by-pass or maintaining the boardwalk near TR Island.

On the other hand, it would be a very nice way to cross the river.

I got excited until I realized that it would continue crumbling, and if no cars are using it, they’d actually *never* fix it. So we’d have a whole nice bridge to use for a few years and then nada.

[mstone]

@huskerdont 136052 wrote:

I got excited until I realized that it would continue crumbling, and if no cars are using it, they’d actually *never* fix it. So we’d have a whole nice bridge to use for a few years and then nada.

Without the weight of cars it would probably outlive all of us.

[bentbike33]

The mistake NPS made was discovering and attempting to fix the problem before the spectacular and tragic failure of the bridge. You want a bridge replaced pronto, you need a disaster. See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I-35W_Mississippi_River_bridge. This bridge collapsed Aug. 1, 2007 and was reopened September 18, 2008.

[baiskeli]

@bentbike33 136075 wrote:

The mistake NPS made was discovering and attempting to fix the problem before the spectacular and tragic failure of the bridge. You want a bridge replaced pronto, you need a disaster. See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I-35W_Mississippi_River_bridge. This bridge collapsed Aug. 1, 2007 and was reopened September 18, 2008.

It could still turn out that way though.

[Author]

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