BIKE: Pfluger Completion Within Sight?

[Eric Anderson]

Friends and foes of Pfluger Bridge:

I have submitted the following for publication in the December-(January)
issue of Southwest Cycling News (newspaper of the Austin Cycling
Association), available today at your neighborhood bike shop or
coffeehouse:

Pfluger Bridge Completion Within Sight?

Pfluger planners hint at new developments

The four year-old riddle of our short-armed Pfluger Bridge may soon be
closer to solving. Quoting from a November 4th letter to the members of
the Community Advisory Group (CAG), Pfluger Extension Project planners
wrote: 

“Exciting potential partnering opportunities are developing for the
Pfluger Bridge Extension Project as a direct result of the City's ongoing
discussions with developers of projects in the Seaholm District. New and
potentially exciting opportunities for the Pfluger Bridge are resulting
from these discussions…”

The Pfluger Bridge Extension Project CAG will meet December 15th to
discuss “these exciting new developments and how the Pfluger Bridge
Extension options dovetail into them…”

Pfluger Bridge Extension Project CAG meeting:
Date: Wednesday, December 15, 2004 
Time: 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.
Place: Town Lake Center, 721 Barton Springs Road, Room 100

If you have not yet visited the Pfluger Bridge Extension Project Website,
you will find considerable background information:
http://www.ci.austin.tx.us/publicworks/pflugerbridge_planning.htm

Seven alignment options follow three design concepts: 1) the original
northwest option that would start from the bridge and travel northwesterly
towards North Lamar Boulevard, 2) a set of options in a northeasterly
direction from the bridge, and 3) a set of options that would cross West
Cesar Chavez Street through a street underpass at a point east of the
Union Pacific bridge.
http://www.ci.austin.tx.us/publicworks/pflugerbridge_design.htm

You will also find on the “design page” several other links, including
“Preliminary Alternative Data Sheet” which details distance, structure
length, and grade change information. An “Evaluation Criteria Sheet” will
help you rate the various alternatives.

Now, to offer my own opinion, incorporating thoughts of others who have
battled this Pfluger Bridge conundrum as long or longer than I. To begin
with, the facility must serve well the bridge’s original transportation
purpose, or quoting Urban Transportation Commissioner Mike Dahmus:

“The route MUST be an attractive enough alternative to LAMAR BLVD so that
TRANSPORTATIONAL CYCLISTS willingly use it instead of the Lamar Bridge.”

I believe that a (center) Northeast Pfluger extension (or variation on
NE-2 and NE-3) could serve not only those seasoned Class "A" cyclists, but
also Class "B" cyclists. It may be that an alternative has finally emerged
that unites district needs with bicycle transportation requirements,
including: 

·	secure Bowie St. alignment through proposed Gables project on
Lumberman’s Tract, facilitating a Bowie St. underpass
·	build Bowie underpass in tandem with a bridge extension
·	incorporate Lance Armstrong Bikeway into Pfluger Bridge extension
alignment between Cesar Chavez and 3rd St.
·	signalized intersections at BOTH 5th and Bowie AND 6th and Bowie
·	design and implement quality engineered transition/crossing connecting
Bowie and 6th with Henderson, facilitating north and south-bound travel
from Pfluger Bridge and Bowie underpass to 9th and Henderson
·	create a bike-way to and through the Market District while also
facilitating the north-south connectivity desired by seasoned bike
commuters

Stay tuned for more “potentially exciting opportunities for the Pfluger
Bridge”.

=========================================================

Pfluger planners hope to have consensus on a bridge-alignment by early
this next year, then going to council, and receiving authorization to
follow through with design and engineering. If all goes well, we might
expect construction to begin sometime in 2006.

Clearly the opportunity that seems to be unfolding involves coordination
and partnership with neighboring projects and developers, including:
Gables, Children's Museum, Seaholm redevelopment, Whole Foods flagship
store and corporate offices, Schlosser Development, Phoenix project at
Goodwill site, and perhaps involving other corporate "good citizens" in
the neighborhood such as GSDM.

If Pfluger planners are unable to leverage this economic development and
civic momentum toward a wildly successful Pfluger Bridge, we might as well
just lay down and die!



=====
Eric Anderson <bikeeric>
(512) 476-7304


		
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