43 replies to this topic

[j.midtown]

Southron, on Mar 26 2009, 10:04 PM, said:

An engineering study of lowering the interstate was presented to ONB, with a projected cost of up to $700 million and nearly 20 acres reclaimed for development.  According to ONB the existing interstate is within seven years or so of its life cycle and could cost $125 million to repair or replace.

Proposal presented to Birmingham leaders calling for lowering I-20/59 downtown

As with so many things, the devil is in the details.  Entrenching at a basic level just changes the method of dividing the city from a wall to a river (of cars/asphalt). It is the quality of the surface street overpasses that will determine how well the two sides connect.

Atlanta's Downtown Connector is a perfect example as it is entrenched or partially so throughout Midtown and for many years served as a substantial barrier to community and economic development westward from Midtown due to the basic automotive-oriented utilitarian designs of the street overpasses. That has been changing substantially with reconstruction of some of them with a eye towards improving the pedestrian and cycling experience/environment.  

Compare the pedestrian experience of the North Avenue overpass (via Google Streetview) of 10' wide sidewalks sandwiched between chain link fencing and five lanes of traffic with the recently rebuilt Fifth St. overpass (image below) that serves to connect Georgia Tech's campus expansion on the east side of the Connector to the main land-locked campus on the west side.



The bridge is a full acre, most of which is a small park with barrier plantings that muffle traffic noise and visually hide the interstate below; you can cross it with practically no awareness that there are 16 lanes of traffic underneath you.  Currently, the 14th St. bridge is being rebuilt with pedestrian- and bike-friendly features, though not nearly as elaborate as 5th St.

[bhamsly]

j.midtown, on Mar 28 2009, 12:53 PM, said:

As with so many things, the devil is in the details. Entrenching at a basic level just changes the method of dividing the city from a wall to a river (of cars/asphalt). It is the quality of the surface street overpasses that will determine how well the two sides connect.

Atlanta's Downtown Connector is a perfect example as it is entrenched or partially so throughout Midtown and for many years served as a substantial barrier to community and economic development westward from Midtown due to the basic automotive-oriented utilitarian designs of the street overpasses. That has been changing substantially with reconstruction of some of them with a eye towards improving the pedestrian and cycling experience/environment.

Compare the pedestrian experience of the North Avenue overpass (via Google Streetview) of 10' wide sidewalks sandwiched between chain link fencing and five lanes of traffic with the recently rebuilt Fifth St. overpass (image below) that serves to connect Georgia Tech's campus expansion on the east side of the Connector to the main land-locked campus on the west side.



The bridge is a full acre, most of which is a small park with barrier plantings that muffle traffic noise and visually hide the interstate below; you can cross it with practically no awareness that there are 16 lanes of traffic underneath you. Currently, the 14th St. bridge is being rebuilt with pedestrian- and bike-friendly features, though not nearly as elaborate as 5th St.

Yeah, hopefully our overpasses will look very similar to that particular one in Atlanta...with our civic center there, it would be perfect. I just wonder where the new parking lots will be(being that much of the BJCC/museum/etc. parking was under the interstate).

[Jim856796]

convulso, on 11 November 2008 - 10:20 PM, said:

but why do we need a tunnel?

tunnels are dark, and dark places scare me. what can happen?

Look, I said the word "tunnel" because it looked like the submerged freeway through downtown needed to be covered by a green space similar to the proposed Woodall Rogers Deck Park in Dallas. And the Malfunction Junction interchange should be rdeveloped into a more conventional interchange. Why was the existing interchange designed like that, anyway?

[kayman]

Shotty consstruction and lack of foresight when it came to the amount of growth of the Greater Birmingham area from the planners at ALDOT.  They know they could redevelop that interchange back in the 1980's in the midst of the largest of the area's growth spurths until the recent one, but they chose to do nothing.