April 2010 Archives

According to the CJ, the Bridge Authority is planning to spend another $97,000 for more toll studies. Apparently, tolling every interstate bridge in the region won't cover the $4.1 Billion price tag. 

We've got some ideas. How about a "Drive-Thru" toll? A % of every Happy Meal goes toward building Spaghetti Junction. Or maybe corporate sponsors! Just imagine the CJ Editorial supporting the new 23-lane wide Olive Garden Spaghetti Junction.

Our favorite line in the article:

"Steve Schultz, the bi-state authority's executive director, said he doesn't know what Wilbur Smith will be studying, but he expects the results will be helpful."

WHAT! Seriously? They expect great things from a study THEY ordered, but know nothing about. The "openness" and "transparency" touting mayoral candidates should be all over this.

If you'd like to participate in an online poll, click the link below:

Do you support the current direction and cost of the Ohio River Bridges Project?

Note: Polling on this issue is not supported or endorsed by the Editorial Board of the Courier-Journal. They stopped polling on the issue in 1996. I wonder why...

CJ's 1992 poll: 46% support the East End Bridge

CJ's 1993 poll: 57% support the East End Bridge

CJ's 1996 poll: 66% support the East End Bridge

According to the last published schedule for the Bridges Project, the East End Bridge is to be completed before the downtown bridge begins. See the blue and yellow lines below under "Construction".

(C) 2008 ORBP

It is hard for some people to imagine what Louisville's waterfront will look like when aspects of 8664's vision are adopted. Originally, we hesitated to illustrate our plan, because we felt the specifics should be determined by an open community dialog whereby urban planners, park designers and transportation engineers take citizen input to create the best possible solution. That is still what needs to happen. But some people have intentionally misrepresented our plan by suggesting that the parkway would be eight or ten lanes wide or that it would create a dangerous obstacle to access Waterfront Park. Malarkey!

This project should be used as a model for how community decisions are made. It's not up to politicians or road builders, and it's not up to us. It's a collaborative process that leverages the best and brightest ideas available. To that end, we can look to other national examples of freeway removal to help us visualize what our Waterfront Parkway might look like. Portland, OR was the first national example, so let's take a look at what their parkway looks like today:

Click the link to read more.

From the press release:

The Bridges Authority meeting this morning was dominated by opponents to tolls on Louisville's current and future bridges. A number of local media outlets covered the meeting:

Wave3: Authority of Bridges Authority being questioned
WFPL: Bridges Authority Hears Public Comment
Business First: Bridges authority hears criticisms
C-J: Toll opponents dominate Ohio River bridges meeting
FOX41: Bridges Authority meeting yields protesters 
News Tribune: More bridges tolling questions arise
LEO Weekly: T(r)olls To Invade New Albany!

Sign a PETITION, if you oppose tolls.

Take a look at the current plan for how the Bridges Project will move the 3rd Street ramp. See the brown off-ramps that dead end at the playground at Waterfront Park? That's the plan. Can you imagine? Tens of thousands of I-64 and I-71 commuter traffic unloading right into Waterfront Park. 

Back in 2005, the Ohio River Bridges Project released the picture below. At the time, their plan literally doubled the width of I-64 above Waterfront Park from 150' to 300' wide. Because of the strong reaction from the public, they later altered the plan and moved the 3rd Street ramp to the east -- as seen above.

So what have we learned? Even when road designers try to do the "right thing", they can't. There is no way to pour 23 lanes of concrete on our waterfront without destroying it.

Anyone who supports a downtown bridge needs to answer the following questions:

Why should we unload interstate commuter traffic right into Waterfront Park?

Since we're not expanding Hospital Curve or the Cochran Tunnel, where will all the new downtown bridge traffic go?