Key Bridge Collapses in Baltimore

Charlie_mta said:
Nice new bridge, but I'm not seeing any sidewalk or multi-use path included.
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It's a mile-long bridge that you'd have to outfit with suicide fences at sufficient cost bloat, and it connects to absolutely zilch for sidewalk or path infrastructure on either side of the bay with the south side being heavy industry and the north side being an MDOT highway division barracks and another fairly long extant bridge that's not being rebuilt with sidewalks. There's no usage case whatsoever for sidewalks on the span, and there's never going to be.
 
F-Line to Dudley said:
It's a mile-long bridge that you'd have to outfit with suicide fences at sufficient cost bloat, and it connects to absolutely zilch for sidewalk or path infrastructure on either side of the bay with the south side being heavy industry and the north side being an MDOT highway division barracks and another fairly long extant bridge that's not being rebuilt with sidewalks. There's no usage case whatsoever for sidewalks on the span, and there's never going to be.
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The suicide fencing is a moot point, as such fencing would be needed on any high bridge that has pedestrian or bike facilities, such as the proposed Sagamore Bridge and a host of others. Also, looking at the Google map below, there are large parks off the west end of the Key Bridge, which connect to residential areas further to the west by a local road bridge with a sidewalk. On the other (east) end of the Key Bridge, not far from the end of the bridge is an intersecting boulevard leading to a large residential district, and to the rest of the eastern Baltimore metro area. So, based on the proximity of parks and residential areas, and the potential for bike lanes and paths to be established on the local/arterial streets off the ends of the Key Bridge, the bridge looks like it should have had a multi-use path designed in, as it is the only crossing of the Patapsco River in that large part of the Baltimore metro area and would provide a critical ink in a larger bike path and trail system. Granted, the multi-use paths off the ends of the bridge are not now in place, but could be justified if similar facilities were provided on the Key Bridge

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Every bridge should have provisions for people walking and bicycling. Especially if we're spending hundreds of millions of dollars. Accommodating people not in cars should not be optional.
 
I don't think anyone here is disagreeing with that in the general case. But in this one specific case, it's doubtful whether there would be any actual use of bike/ped provisions on the bridge, and it would be a very inefficient use of funds compared to other bike/ped and transit uses.

Except for the Dundalk neighborhood, the area surrounding the bridge is almost entirely industrial. The shortest possible commute over the bridge, from South Lane in Dundalk to the chemical plants near Dock Road, is a full 3 miles. To the Coast Guard logistics center is over 4 miles. Eastbound, from Curtis Bay to the Amazon warehouses is 7 miles. Very few people are going to walk that far for commuting or other trips. Even biking would be brutal, with a 250+ foot climb and exposure to the elements.

For a bikeway on a 2-mile bridge, plus the necessary connections to anything remotely walkable or bikeable on each end, you're talking minimum $100 million versus the auto-only bridge. For that price, you could get decades of bus service over the bridge, plus an enormous amount of bike/ped improvements in the areas where people will actually use them.
 
The EGE said:
I don't think anyone here is disagreeing with that in the general case. But in this one specific case, it's doubtful whether there would be any actual use of bike/ped provisions on the bridge, and it would be a very inefficient use of funds compared to other bike/ped and transit uses.

Except for the Dundalk neighborhood, the area surrounding the bridge is almost entirely industrial. The shortest possible commute over the bridge, from South Lane in Dundalk to the chemical plants near Dock Road, is a full 3 miles. To the Coast Guard logistics center is over 4 miles. Eastbound, from Curtis Bay to the Amazon warehouses is 7 miles. Very few people are going to walk that far for commuting or other trips. Even biking would be brutal, with a 250+ foot climb and exposure to the elements.

For a bikeway on a 2-mile bridge, plus the necessary connections to anything remotely walkable or bikeable on each end, you're talking minimum $100 million versus the auto-only bridge. For that price, you could get decades of bus service over the bridge, plus an enormous amount of bike/ped improvements in the areas where people will actually use them.
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You and F-Line are probably right. Resources for ped/bike facilities are limited, and its best to invest them where they'll get the most usage. Busses equipped with bike racks on routes crossing the Key Bridge would fill the gap. I just think of people like me who in their lives do (or have done) recreational biking over long distances, but it would be expensive to accommodate that usage on this particular bridge.
 
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