Credit: Bridgepix
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  • Bridgepix

The Broadway Bridge has been closed to all traffic to install the new length of rail for the streetcar. Originally streetcar construction planners thought they could do it without closing it to bikes and pedestrians, but that idea was axed when they realized the balance of the Broadway Bridge is in fact so delicate that they had to work on both sidewalks at the same time to “avoid torquing” the bridge.

They’re working on the sidewalks of the Broadway Bridge because they’re actually replacing them with fiberglass, to make the bridge weigh less. “Because we’re adding 240,000 pounds of track, we have to take that off the bridge,” streetcar spokeswoman Julie Gustafson says.

Meanwhile the Hawthorne Bridge will be closing on August 7th to be a park for a day! Apparently it’s Hawthorne’s 100th year birthday, and to celebrate, birthday enthusiasts are trucking in 25,000 square feet of lawn and setting up picnic tables over the bridge. Food carts will line the sides. The hitch is, due to weight limits, you’ll need a ticket, and you can only get one through a pricey auction.

Of course all traffic from both bridges will then be directed to the already narrow and usually crowded pedestrian/bike ramp of the Steel Bridge. We are predicting a full collapse into the river. Maybe the splash will even show up the fancy festival bridge lights on Hawthorne.

4 replies on “Steel Bridge To Collapse August 7th!”

  1. There are two other main bridges, you know. 2 of them are closer to Hawthorne than the Steel Bridge. And it doesn’t sound like they’re making the Hawthorne Bridge into a park for a day so much as an exclusive country club.

  2. The Broadway bridge already had railroad tracks in it, they were just covered up with asphalt, (I’ve got pictures to prove it.) They took them out, they are putting new ones in, seems like the bridge would weigh exactly the same, except you know, the railroad tracks will now be level, straight, and not covered in rust because they won’t be 100 years old and haven’t seen traffic in 60…

    If you want to put some wider sidewalks in while they are replacing them though, that would be cool.

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