(Tukey's Bridge) Maine DOT has rerouted bridge sidewalks before- why not now?

[Gordon Platt]

https://www.pressherald.com/2014/07/17/in-reversal-casco-bay-bridge-sidewalk-wont-be-completely-closed-during-repairs/ 

In 2014 the DOT kept the sidewalk over the Casco Bay Bridge open.  I haven't found anything yet about Tukey's Bridge. 

There are bike lanes on the Casco Bay Bridge roadway.

Walking and biking on Tukey's bridge is illegal, and traffic is at or above highway speed. 

If they have done it before on a longer, wider, bridge, why not here and now? 

Gordon

[Christian MilNeil]

I mean, it's not OUR job to figure out how Unitil and MaineDOT comply with federal ADA law. But MaineDOT did close BOTH the outer lanes on Tukey's Bridge to do a bridge deck repair project back in 2011:

https://www.maine.gov/dot/news/all-lanes-tukeys-bridge-are-set-reopen
Earlier this summer, crews had cordoned Washington Avenue off completely, creating essentially a local road with no access to or from I-295. This strategy facilitated a sequence of work zone lane closures on the northbound side of the bridge as well as repair work just to the north on the Washington Avenue, Sherwood Street, SLRR, and Kensington Street overpasses.

Essentially they set up jersey barriers on the bridge so that Washington Ave. traffic could not merge into or off from I-295. This basically set up a layout where you had a local roadway (Washington Ave) next to the Interstate. 

So they did it before, and they certainly could do it again, with just one lane on the west (southbound) side of the bridge, to accommodate temporary trail traffic (and – bonus – a larger and safer work zone for Unitil, and a safer traffic pattern for drivers coming south from Washington Avenue):

In fact, the current layout of the bridge is a massive safety hazard and does not comply with modern design guidelines, because drivers from that rightmost lane coming from Washington Ave. have to merge across *two* lanes of highway traffic to get onto I-295. It's an absurdly bad and unsafe design and it's one of the reasons why Tukey's Bridge is one of the most crash-prone segments of I-295. The layout in the sketch above mitigates those hazards considerably by removing one of those two merge zones from the bridge, where there's considerably less risk and fewer consequences for crashes.  

If MaineDOT were actually focused on safety, this rightmost lane of I-295 southbound would be closed permanently. 

if they insist on being obtuse and obstructive, 

Christian MilNeil
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