Bike-To-Brown

It’s Open!!!!

The Washington Bridge pedestrian/bicycle bridge is finally open again!  According to a RIDOT new post,

The bike path on the bridge is in its original configuration, and cyclists and pedestrians should exercise caution on the path as it is very narrow. There are numerous alcoves along the path where cyclists can pull over and let an oncoming rider pass.

One of our very own, Mike McKeown reports riding over the bridge at 5:15pm this evening, was he the first?

Washington Bridge Pedestrian Walkway

I’ve now heard from two different sources inside of RIDOT that work on the Washington Bridge Pedestrian Walkway should be completed any day now.  Apparently, all that remains is to lay some asphalt to cover the sand/dirt section.  This was actually scheduled for last week, but the rain held them up.  Hopefully, we will get some nice days here and they can actually finish the work and reopen the path!

Now the next trick will be to convince them to keep the section open while linear park construction is happening.

52 Days Later…

After only 52 days, someone from RIDOT or the sub-contractor working for them, finally managed to duct tape a garbage bag over the “bicycles must use sidewalk” sign today.  I’m now collecting bets as to how long it will take them to replace the recently gone missing metal plate along the sidewalk.  It only leaves a 1′x6″x3″ hole in the middle of sidewalk.

Sorry RIDOT, I couldn’t keep the sarcasm in check today…

UPDATE: Perhaps I spoke too soon… the garbage bag and tape covering didn’t even last the day.  By the time the evening commute was upon us, the covering had already fallen off.  It will be interesting to see if there is anything covering the sign on Monday.

Temporary Crosswalk in Place

I noticed during my ride in this morning that the temporary crosswalk is now in place, crossing Massassoit just North of the Henderson Bridge.  The goal is to assist cyclists trying to continue South/East on Massassoit from the current bicycle detour. I’m not sure when it was installed, but I decided to do a little testing on my way home tonight.  So I road down to the crosswalk and waited… waited… waited… as cars just drove by me sitting at the crosswalk. Hopefully, we will get a better response once the Share the Road signs are in place.

Followup call with RIDOT

I’m back from vacation and was dismayed to see that the Westbound “Bikes Must Use Sidewalk” sign was still visable.  So, I called up Steve Church at RIDOT again.

Apparently, David Morgan, the chief bridge engineer at RIDOT associated with this project, went out with the contract engineer yesterday to review the signage issues.  He is in the process of writing a letter to the contractor siting what signs need to be fixed.  Don’t you just love bureaucracy?  Why does it take over two weeks to get to the point of writing a letter?  For that matter, why do they even need to write a letter?  I’m sure the latter has to do with ensuring that they have something formal in writing should one of us get run over and it’s determined that the contractor sat on this issue after being alerted.  But seriously, just fix the sign!  I also brought up the missing crosswalk on Massassoit and was promised that it will be coming, but given no definite time frame.  While I was on a role, I also brought up the missing “Share the Road” signs.  Apparently, these have been ordered and will be posted on Massassoit once they come in.

The really big issue here, as I see it, is the unordered approach RIDOT/the contractor appear to have taken with the project.  All of these signs and the crosswalk should have been up before work started on the bridge.  If they couldn’t be completed in time, then the project should have been delayed.  I’m serious.  Can you imagine RIDOT allowing a contractor to go ahead with a bridge highway project where they 1) remove the guardrails from the bridge and 2) move all the cars to a one side of the bridge?  Sure, the side housing the cars is supposed to have a temporary guardrail, but we don’t have it yet and decided to go ahead anyways.  I’m sure the motorists won’t mind, what could go wrong?

There is also a serious secondary issue.  Most of us in this group try to do the right thing and ride responsibly.  In this case, we all know the sign is incorrect and ignore it, but what do you suppose the motorists think as they drive by, just another cyclist breaking the law!  I still carry around a copy of the STC minutes, just in case I’m stopped some day.  This way, at least I have something I can show to back up our position.

Henderson Detours

RIDOT put out an official press release yesterday detailing their proposed detour.  The release included a map of the detour and a brief description of how cyclists were being detoured.  Personally, we think their choice to route cyclists down the sidewalk, along S. Angell St., between Butler and Patterson is unfortunate.  So, Bike-to-Brown is posting our own recommended detour.  We offer two different outbound routes, both of which avoid sidewalk usage as much as possible.  The route down Lloyd is slightly longer, but takes you along quieter streets than Waterman.

Phone Call With RIDOT

I just got off the phone with Steve Church from RIDOT and have an update on some of the Henderson issues. First some background… During the March 12th 2008 STC meeting the board voted to limit bicycle access to the Henderson Bridge during construction. In particular they passed a motion that RIDOT would:

Prohibit bicyclists from using the travel lanes during all construction phases where
a minimum of 15 feet of pavement width is not maintained.

Require bicyclists to dismount and use the sidewalk area during the phases of
construction in which a minimum of 15 feet of pavement width is not maintained
and the only means of providing bicyclists access across the bridge is the sidewalk.

In my conversation with Steve, he is going to follow up on:

1. The sign stating bikes are prohibited from the roadway as you enter the Henderson from Massassoit are incorrect.  Steve acknowledged that these signs go against what the board approved and will be working with RIDOT engineers to remedy the situation.
2. A crosswalk will be put in at the beginning/ending of the current detour, where bikes/peds are currently directed to cross Massassoit.  The money has been approved for this and Steve is trying to find out when this will be happening.
3. Steve will also follow up with getting detour signs posted on Pitman and East River Rd, so bikes/peds don’t inadvertently end up on the narrowed roadway.  Please let us know if you ride another way towards the bridge that isn’t marked.

… and so it begins

The looming construction on the Henderson finally seems to be underway. The outbound route over the bridge was down to a single lane and they had the bike detour signs up. I have to admit, at least along the route I took this afternoon, the detour was clearly marked. Thanks to RIDOT for at least taking bikes into account during the construction, unlike the Washington Bridge project. I’ll probably come up with a different route and post a map once I’ve fine tuned it, as the stock detour has you riding over a sidewalk for quite some distance as you approach the bridge.

Exiting the Northern sidewalk back onto Massosoit is horrible! They have a painted cross walk at nearly a blind curve, if you go further up the sidewalk, there is no painted cross walk. I sure hope nobody is hit and killed by a car during this construction. During the STC meetings, we asked them to put a pedestrian actuated light during the construction, the idea was nixed.

In other news, the section of the EBBP just North of Crescent Ave is all ripped up again. They have it down to a rock sub-layer, I assume in preparation for putting down a brand new asphalt topping. It sure would be nice to have our “highway” back and fully functional before the entire summer is gone

Riverside Sewer Repair Could Take 3 Weeks

According to a Projo article

A city sewer main that runs along the East Bay Bike Path in the Riverside section of the city broke recently and public works officials say it will take three weeks to repair.

The bike path just north of Crescent View Avenue will remain closed during the construction.

Public Works director Stephen H. Coutu said a detour route for bike path users isn’t necessary because, “the path has been closed all winter [for repairs to Barrington sewer pipes] and now we just have our own project.”

I rode through this section of the path on the way home last night and didn’t notice anything other than the usual problems, plenty of dirt.  What are the chances that the path will be back and operational by the time Bike-to-Work day comes around?

Primordial Pavement – Henderson Bridge Sidewalk

If you’ve been following along, you know that we have informed RIDOT that the north sidewalk of the Henderson Bridge will not be suitable in its current state to serve as a bicycle detour when they start contruction on the bridge in June. Along the Providence end of the bridge offramp, instead of paved sidewalk, there was only an unimproved dirt path. That is, until today.

When RIDOT experimentally excavated this area earlier this Spring, they found a long-buried fully-paved sidewalk beneath the sand and silt, and indicated they would clear it off, re-exposing the pavement. Today they apparently got busy. Sometime between this morning and this evening, they swept the full span of the north sidewalk of all sand, glass, and debris, and they have stripped the 3-4 inches of dirt off the sidewalk along the approach to S. Angell. They almost finished the job, leaving about 30-40 yards uncleared, but I expect they’ll be back soon. The exposed asphalt sidewalk is in surprisingly good condition … level and smooth.

Watch out if you’re riding in the road, though – they pushed all that dirt into the road shoulder along the full length that they’ve cleared, forcing you into the travel lane unless you don’t mind riding over loose rough dirt. Hopefully they’ll bring the road streetsweeper through very soon!