Open the Bridge for Heavens’ sake!
Posted: December 4th, 2008 | Filed under: Community, Personalities, Ruminations | 1 Comment »Updated 12/04 @ 3:05 pm — Seems that the powers that be are having second thoughts. Here’s the latest as reported by the C-J: ” City spokesman Chris Poynter said the guardrails could be erected within a week if the city can get the state highway department’s bridge engineers and the state historic preservation officer to sign off on the plan.”
For reasons too painful to go into — the final illness of my beloved Lila the Love Dog and trips with her to her vet’s office in Prospect — I’ve been driving a lot on River Road the last few months. Which meant trips across that lovely one-lane Harrods Creek Bridge, where civility and accomodation and patience have always been manifest.
Now, as I trust you’ve read, it is closed. The reason, if I can decipher the official explanation, is that the guard rails aren’t safe. So, what the authorities have done is erect steel guard rails blocking the entrances to the bridge at either end.
For once I have to agree with the River Fields group. (Normally I take this tony conglomeration of folks who reside along the Upper River Road corridor to task.) Their position here is that the authorities might just as well have erected those steel barriers as guard rails and the bridge could have been reopened already.
Who am I to disagree?
Instead this well-traveled but eminently bucolic artery to the city’s northeastern burbs is now blocked at a critical juncture. And for the forseeable future. Which will increase traffic along windy Wolf Pen Branch Road and Brownsboro Road.
If the bridge is truly unsafe, the public should know why. And when it will be fixed. If the bridge just needs new guard rails, just move the ones recently erected to the sides of the bridge and reopen it.
This one, kiddos, is a no brainer.
Tempted to write to CJ but canceled subscription following their most recent publication of distorted election opinions. Yes, I do mean opinions.
The bridge….two years ago this past November I contacted the local highway department when I witnessed a semitruck attempting to drive over the bridge. The driver of the truck then delayed traffic when he tried to back his truck down River Road. Not to mention that I’ve also, seen MSD and concrete companies drive large trucks over the bridge.
The highway department, two years ago, said that the bridge was in terrible condition and that they were slated to begin work that month. Two years later and the only work done has been shutting down the bridge?
My theory is that the highway department never seemed concerned about anyone’s safety in the last two years. This was done in retaliation to the River Fields group. Just another way for the state to show us who’s boss.
I don’t believe we need a wider Harrods Creek Bridge. Before the expansion of the Gene Snyder Freeway at the intersection of HWY 42, there was less traffic and we had fewer accidents. Never was there a traffic delay before the expansion.
I’ve lived in the Highlands too and dealt with the constant traffic mess on Bardstown Road. Now I live in the ” burbs” and found much to like about both. However, throwing out the old and bringing in the new sounds a bit unrealistic. Considering the cost, air quality and scenic history of River Road, I feel that the highway department is acting like a bully.
It is when I choose not to or am not allowed to cross the bridge that keeps me from looking at what’s on the other side.
Stop wasting our tax dollars on rebuilding highways and bridges that aren’t needed. If this is truly a need then go spent our tax dollars on widening Bardtwon Road and get the spaghetti junction mess cleaned up!
CHW