Northern Avenue Bridge Fort Point Channel

whighlander said:
ONA6.jpg
Click to expand...

I actually really like this design.
 
I do too. I just want something to be done here, at the very least fixing the bridge up enough so that the entire thing is open to bikes and peds.
 
JohnAKeith said:
We have our own Google Barge!
Click to expand...

John, you've hit the proverbial Grand Slam

Build a large barge, get a BIG Crane or possibly Two sell the video to one of those BIG Construction programs on some division of the Discovery Channel

Pick up the Center Section of the Bridge and mount it on the Barge

Connect the Barge Bridge with two small movable pedestrian gangplanks to the permanent approach sections of the bridge

Then in the unlikely need for something to pass through the channel the gangplanks get raised and if the really unlikely event occurs the barge can be towed out into the harbor

The cost of the project will be paid for by the showing of the program and future downloads and DVDs
 
cca said:
I agree it should be cleaned up and left to itself. BU bridge has a whole new life after its renovation.

cca
Click to expand...

This, I would even go so far as to say let cars go across it again.

The real opportunity isn't in the bridge itself, but the structures that used to be attached to it. The old bridge tenders house that is slowly falling into the ocean would make an amazing restuarant/bar. And there was a 4 story firehouse (most recently ross sea tow) at the south east side of the span that could be reconstructed.

I love the tea party museum in the middle of the fort point. Rebuilding more of the structures that used to line the bridges would give a unique aesthetic, and contrast the new fan pier with the "old" seaport.


In a similar vein, I wish the citys old truss bridges were reconstructed with the same furvor as the charles river crossings. We are about to loose the north washington st bridge, and already lost the ones on the south side of the city. They had so much more character than the glorified freeway overpasses that replace them.
 
BostonUrbEx said:
WHY DON'T WE HAVE THIS? WHERE DID WE GO WRONG?
Click to expand...

The glass-encased bridge redevelopment was proposed by Beal Companies. It was of five proposals submitted in response to a BRA RFP in 1999.

That glass proposal was not selected. Instead, a development across the Channel that included bridge demolition was selected by the BRA.

The following excerpt is from http://www.historicboston.org/casebook/99cb/oldn.avebridge.htm

Five developers responded to the BRA's 1999 Request for Proposals, and the BRA tentatively designated Forest City Enterprises to redevelop the site in July 1999. Forest City's plans called for demolishing the bridge and constructing a three-story, 150,000 square foot retail structure on the footprint of the central fender pier. In September 1999 the Boston Landmarks Commission, having accepted a petition to landmark in June 1999, recommended designating the bridge as a Boston Landmark. Mayor Menino denied the Landmark designation in November 1999. The next month Forest City withdrew its proposal citing the necessity of massive subsidies, which prompted the city to explore demolition options. Such an action, however, would have violated a Section 106 Memorandum of Agreement signed in the late 1980s when the City used federal funds to construct the Evelyn Moakley Bridge. Mayor Menino now supports saving the bridge and the Public Works Department is exploring opportunities to do so.
 
^^^Section 106 is a historic preservation process conducted at the Federal level, often producing a memorandum of agreement among parties at interest, and specifying what can / cannot be done to an existing structure which is considered historic. The bridge wouldn't need to be on the National Register to be covered by a Section 106 process, as long as it was determined to be eligible for listing.

Someone in the BRA was asleep at the switch when the RFP went out in 1999.
 
biked and walked around downtown/seaport on saturday. things are coming along in all places (Filenes had some robust activity at 715 on sat. morning!). This bridge needs to have something happen to it. It is the primary pedestrian connector on the harborwalk and linking all seaport with Aquarium, and downtown attractions that tourists would be going. There is a lot of $$ going in the ground on both sides of this bridge and millions of dollars literally walking over it every day. And its a crumbing steel heap with chain link fences and butt filled planters.

It needs to be saved and redone, and if it can't at this moment in time, its a total failure of leadership.
 
choo said:
biked and walked around downtown/seaport on saturday. things are coming along in all places (Filenes had some robust activity at 715 on sat. morning!). This bridge needs to have something happen to it. It is the primary pedestrian connector on the harborwalk and linking all seaport with Aquarium, and downtown attractions that tourists would be going. There is a lot of $$ going in the ground on both sides of this bridge and millions of dollars literally walking over it every day. And its a crumbing steel heap with chain link fences and butt filled planters.

It needs to be saved and redone, and if it can't at this moment in time, its a total failure of leadership.
Click to expand...

The grand entrance to the Seaport "Innovation District" is used for temporary parking. Pretty sure this parcel is City owned. Both ends are a mess.

Visitors walking along Harborwalk at Rowes Wharf are dead-ended here. There are no signs or wayfinding along west side of Fort Point Channel to reconnect pedestrians around Hook Lobster toward Independence and Atlantic Wharves. Most tourists simply turn around here, never exploring the western edge of Fort Point Channel beyond this point.

Earlier this summer, the BRA took waterfront planning newbies on a tour of the waterfront with a focus on wayfinding. From what I could tell, it was the same dog-and-pony show I attended in 1998... no ideas solicited at that time were funded.

AuIQGp5.jpg
 
How hard would

1) fix the structural issues
2) paint it
3) open the middle and right (west) sections to autos, reserve the left (east) section for pedestrians

be? It's just a bridge
 
I do know of one developer that analyzed it and even jamming it with space, the costs are still high to do all in private. This is definitely a public/private partnership with tax breaks type deal. But that's exactly what its for because by my calculations, the bridge contributes $0 to the tax base.
 
My guess is that this will be reopened to traffic someday. I doubt that the judges in the courthouse like being on a dead end. Way to inconvenient. That would still leave one lane available for pedestrians.
 
Yes, the gangsters need a getaway route :O)

(That was a joke and not a slight to Whitey Bulger's victims.)
 
PaulC said:
My guess is that this will be reopened to traffic someday. I doubt that the judges in the courthouse like being on a dead end. Way to inconvenient. That would still leave one lane available for pedestrians.
Click to expand...

One side will be used for traffic, one side for pedestrians. I believe the bridge will be raised up to a higher level and the harborwalk area around it will be made more handicap accessible. This from the horse's mouth last year on a BRA-led tour of the waterfront.
 
I loooooooooove the lighting on this bridge, and generally the lighting done on some of the new buildings in the seaport.
 
Opening it up to traffic will just make Atlantic Ave a shit show since you'll be putting a bunch of traffic on Atlantic Ave after the highway on ramps.
 
AmericanFolkLegend said:
Opening it up to traffic will just make Atlantic Ave a shit show since you'll be putting a bunch of traffic on Atlantic Ave after the highway on ramps.
Click to expand...

Atlantic Ave is already a nightmare in the morning from the Pike/Expressway through South Station. I drive it every day and some days it will literally take 15-20 minutes to go 5 blocks. The real problem is that trucks double park and take up the far left hand lane and then on the right side, the taxis are a mess by the bus terminal entrance. Obviously whatever traffic enforcement over there isn't working. I never understood why the city doesn't jack up the parking tickets for commercial vehicles that are illegally parked. If it is a $100 ticket now, make it $500. Lot's of businesses just view the current ticket as a cost of doing business downtown likely because the fines are not severe enough. Whatever the fine is now, make it 5 times that and I am sure we will see a dramatic reduction in commercial vehicles that think it is ok to block lanes of traffic during rush hour. /end rant.
 
bostoneophyte said:
One side will be used for traffic, one side for pedestrians. I believe the bridge will be raised up to a higher level and the harborwalk area around it will be made more handicap accessible. This from the horse's mouth last year on a BRA-led tour of the waterfront.
Click to expand...

BNeo -- no one is going to raise the bridge and then use it for vehicular traffic

For the FP Channel to remain navigable the bridge would need to be raised about 10' and besides the support structures required -- that would necessitate massive ramps on both sides

Not going to happen if the bridge is raised-up on new piers then there will only be pedestrian access with Wheelchair accessible ramps {probably switchback] much as the Pedestrian Bridge over the Commuter Tracks at North Station
 
I never understood why the city doesn't jack up the parking tickets
Click to expand...
+1.
The other thing that kills me is when the city pays cops to direct traffic so we don't end up with gridlock (i.e., cars stuck in the middle of the intersection after the lights change). Those cops should be giving out tickets, not directing traffic. Let the signals do their job - if morons aren't stuck in the middle of the intersection they work just fine.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Back
Top