"John A. Weeks III" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...
Quoted message said:Construction is underway on a new signature cable stayed
bridge in Minneapolis. The new Martin Ulav Sabo bridge
will be 2,200 feet long with a main clear span of 220 feet.
It is being built just north of (and parallel to) Lake
Street and crosses both Hiawatha Ave (MN-55) and the light
rail line.The purpose of the bridge is to carry the Midtown Greenway,
a crosstown grade-separated bicycle expressway, across the
very busy Hiawatha Ave and light rail lines without a need
for the bicycle riders to cross at street level (something
that is hard to do today given the large number of streets
that converge there).I went to check out the construction site on Wednesday.
Bridge piers are built and ready on the east side of the
span. On the west side, the pilings are being driven that
will support the main tower. The tower itself will look
very much like the Reiman Bridge in Milwaukee. It will
rise at an angle towards the crossing, then tip back away
from the crossing, with the change in angle happening
where the roadway meets the tower.Once this bridge is completed in 2007, and another bridge
is built at Chicago Ave, the Midtown Greenway will run from
west of Lake Calhoun to the Mississippi River. The west
end connects to a trail known as the LRT trail since it is
an old rail line that is being held in reserve for future
light rail. The east end of the trail ends at the Milwaukee
Road Short Line Bridge over the Mississippi. It is hoped
that rail traffic can be eliminated from that bridge, and
the Greeway be extended east of the river to connect with
trails that go all the way to the Wisconsin state line.I have recently been updating my web site on cable stayed
bridges, adding statistics, stories, and photos:
http://www.johnweeks.com/cablestay/index.html
Thanks for the update. One of my favorite things in the world is biking in
the Twin Cities in spring, summer, or fall. It's beautiful and they have
such a great system of trails to explore and get around. That's quite the
commitment to bikes to actually put up a bridge of that size for bicycle use
only...
I grew up in MN and live in SoCal now. This is one of the things I really
miss about the Twin Cities... that and fishing, ice hockey, and the Twins.
brink