Temporary Albermarle Bridge over Cheesecake Brook

[Jim Cote]

Hi All,

Good news on the temporary bridge at Albemarle (this was also in the Mayor's info this past week):

https://patch.com/massachusetts/newton/newton-install-temporary-footbridge-over-cheesecake-brook?utm_term=article-slot-1&utm_source=newsletter-daily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=newsletter

While on the City Council we reviewed a new replacement bridge and were surprised by the costs given all of the engineering requirements in place now.  Turned out to be a good thing that we didn't build it then.   Now we can review the need (seems necessary), and the timing of getting the new bridge in place.

Have a great day!!

Jim

James Cote

Candidate for Ward 3 City Councilor

Newton, Massachusetts

cote...@gmail.com

www.coteward3.com

508 983-4535

[m...@halle.us]

To say that the bridge over Cheesecake Brook “seems necessary” is an understatement!  It is a critical link for the neighborhood, for users of Albemarle, for F. A. Day students and faculty, and for Newton at large. It should have been replaced, enhanced, and made accessible long ago, but circumstances have forced the issue, We are fortunate that the city is now moving expeditiously (temporary and then permanent replacement).

Impact on F.A. Day

The loss of the bridge for the F. A, Day school community, especially right now so close to the beginning to school, is hugely significant. Many students who walk use the path near Warwick/Wildwood or walk through Fessenden campus and then cross the bridge. While this route is not accessible in a “people with disabilities" sense, hundreds of kids walk and bike through there every day. 

The alternatives that kids must now use, including Waltham/Crafts Its to the north and Watertown St to the south, represent a detour of more than 1/4 mile for some kids. In addition and unfortunately, they both include safety hazards for younger bike riders. The most critical of these hazards, traffic exiting Albemarle onto Crafts, has thankfully been mitigated by shifting parent pickup and drop off to Watertown St and Waltham St. There is currently no plan by the city to provide safer passage for bicyclists using Watertown St to access F. A. Day via Albemarle, nor to mitigate potential conflicts of increased numbers of pedestrians and bicyclists on the Watertown St. sidewalk. 

Visualization: which addresses would use the bridge?

To demonstrate the extent of the havoc that the bridge failure has caused, I did a visualization of the residential addresses in the FA Day school zone, within 1.5 miles walking distance from the school, colored by which approach to the school was the shortest. (See attached images.) The first image, with the bridge open, shows residential addresses closest to the bridge colored in red. The bridge is on the shortest route for the largest fraction of addresses and includes about 4750 addresses (out of about 9675 total addresses in the 1.5 mile F. A. Day zone).

The second map shows what happens when the bridge is closed. Residences nearer to the north get routed to either the north end of Albemarle or the fire lane on the eastern edge of the field (Purple), or to Watertown St and the south end of Albemarle (Blue). By a ratio of about 2 to 1, more addresses are closer to the Watertown side rather than the Crafts side. Both will be very busy routes in just a few days.

The future: doing better

Looking at this map, it’s easy to see how critical the bridge is for walking and biking to F. A. Day. We need to not just restore this critical transportation link, we need to make it safe and fully accessible. That includes the path through the woods from Wildwood, which lies on a sewer easement across private land and is hazardous to cyclists and inaccessible to anyone with mobility limitations. 

We also need to support the rest of the route to Day, including both crossing of Albemarle Rd, safe bike/ped access along Albemarle all the way from Washington St to the Charles River, and replacement of the similar bridge at Albemarle and Nevada Sts.

As bad as the bridge was, “you don’t know what you’ve got till it's gone”. Now we know. Let’s do this right and do it well.

—Mike

P.S. Note that the maps show all residential addresses in the F. A. Day zone, not actual student addresses. 

[Jim Cote]

Thank you Mike. As always awesome analysis and presentation. 

I don't think there's any doubt a new bridge will be built as the Mayor is committed to the project. 

The only question 4 years ago was the timing in the budget process.

The accident solved that problem. 

Thank you. 

Jim