Thanks to city staff for the updated renderings of the 32nd Street bridge. Sorry, but it’s still ugly.
While the river crossing section matches up with other Animas bridges (which I find reasonable), the section over the tracks look like a train carriage on stilts – literally! And cobbled together with multiple cheap freeway-style pylons, it’s abhorrent and looks like a train wreck. Oh, I get it – maybe that was the intention, to integrate with the railroad (sarcasm).
As a commercial architect for over 35 years, I would expect and demand more from my staff. Isn’t there anyone with a creative sense involved in this process?
With ugly out of the way, I still find the thought of spending $4.1 million on this a boondoggle. Where is the traffic count study to inform us on projected use?
I fully expect bike daredevils to fly through the intersection, gracefully timing their route through the cars as they do elsewhere in town.
I’m not a big fan of the flashing yellow crosswalk lights in vogue, as they can be confusing and unsafe, so I agree on improvements – but why not a true red/green stop light? Won’t some pedestrians simply still want to cross the street to get to the other side? (There’s a chicken story in there somewhere.)
If we still feel this just has to be done, there must be a more effective, graceful solution waiting to be found.
If we can’t get it right, just say no.
Jim RothwellDurango
