We're taking a closer look at this situation, but thought we'd go ahead and share this email we received soliciting opposing comments on what appears to be plans for a humongous bridge south of Town Lake -- perhaps the widest in Texas.
As you know, I [Dean Van Landuyt] am a bridge engineer with more than 40 years of design experience. The ATP (Austin Transportation Partnership) is planning to build the WIDEST bridge in the State of Texas along Riverside Drive. There is nothing light about the light rail bridge they have in mind. They’re budgeting for a cheap, heavy highway structure. The ATP has done a bait-and-switch since the bond vote and now wants to move the tracks from the street level up to a new 1-mile-long highway-type bridge. At the junction of the South Congress and Riverside lines, the structure balloons from 35’ to approximately 150' wide. For scale, the current widest bridge in the state is on I-10 in Houston and is 140' wide.
Ironically, at a time when TxDOT is tearing down the twin I35 elevated bridges and depressing the mainlanes downtown to improve the appearance and quality of life in the city, ATP is trying to slip in this monstrosity. They have not been forthcoming about how massive this is. They have only shown a few pretty renderings of people ambling next to zippy light rail stations.
I was able to track down some minimal engineering plans and expose what they are really up to. And wouldn’t you know, a huge bridge is the preferred solution of the developers who recently bought the old American-Statesman and TxDOT buildings on the NE corner of Congress and Riverside Drive. ...
If you would like to keep the south shore of Lady Bird Lake from turning into a blighted area, I ask that you copy and attach the attached Word file [via Google Docs] and send it to input@atptx.org.
