MATHEWS BRIDGE CLOSED! ACK!!!

[Jaxson]

http://jacksonville.com/community/arlington/2012-05-29/story/fdot-mathews-bridge-closed-due-damaged-platform-cables

Would anyone like to share war stories about their evening commute sans the Mathews Bridge?  I noticed that Atlantic, Beach and University Boulevards were all parking lots...  What a mess!

[Ocklawaha]

And from another thread, the answer!

MAYOR BROWN, PLEASE KICK THE HIGHWAY OUT OF JTA!

some would argue that's the only part JTA does well

Simple people, just leave the car at home and ride the rail system to work. What rail system? Oh, I'm sorry, I got Jacksonville confused with the 3Rd World!

http://www.youtube.com/v/X6fgtuuqzUA?version=3&hl=en_US
The news story say's
"Medellin Number One In Transportation Sustainability In The World"

[chipwich]

One hour and 15 minutes to get from the beginning of Atlantic (in front of Bishop Kenny) to cross the light at University and Atlantic.

Just painful.

[tufsu1]

so Ock...what happens in cities with rail when one of the lines go down.....oh yeah, basically the same thing!

[Timkin]

Can you imagine if all the bridges closed and people needed to get out of downtown?   I cross the Matthews pretty often and wondered about this contraption they placed above traffic on the bridge. 


It was a good call to close it ,that is for sure!!  Hope they get the problems solved soon.     This brings to mind a concern, which is when it comes time to replace the bridge, on which side of it will they build the replacement. if it is to the North , Goodbye to the Ford Plant. 

[Charles Hunter]

Don't think we need to worry about a new Mathews Bridge any time soon.  No one has the half billion needed for the bridge and expressway.

[cline]

So the contractor had no contingency plans for the work platform in the case of a storm?  That's brilliant.  What happens if we get another storm that's more powerful- we are about to enter hurricane season.  Can we expect the entire platform to blow off?

[fsujax]

The bridge is open!

[wsansewjs]

so Ock...what happens in cities with rail when one of the lines go down.....oh yeah, basically the same thing!

Don't be a wisecrack, my fellow MetroJacksonvillian! Uncle Ock was just implying that we should have MORE than one options to get around the city beside the roads. Once a bridge gets closed like Matthew Bridge, the other option would be go around on another route... OR get on a light rail or a better bus service, OR airships, or airplane. Oh.. right you don't want to pay as much as you would like to.

-Josh

[Ocklawaha]

so Ock...what happens in cities with rail when one of the lines go down.....oh yeah, basically the same thing!

Wrong TUFSU1, IF a city has a good mix of transit such as Medellin has, IE: streetcar, aerial cable, heavy rail metro, bus, commuter rail etc. If one mode goes down, you have the built in flexibility to make the temporary shift to another. In Jacksonville's asphalt dependent ways, we have just about ZERO flexibility.

The "AUTHORITIES" over at JTA have screwed this city far too long.

OCKLAWAHA

[fsujax]

So we lost the Mathews Bridge, Wonderwood and the Ferry during the storm. If we ever had a major hurricane we would be screwed! Infrastructure can only handle so much mother nature. The more modes the merrier, but at some point they all will fail.

[aclchampion]

Can you imagine if all the bridges closed and people needed to get out of downtown?   I cross the Matthews pretty often and wondered about this contraption they placed above traffic on the bridge. 

Timkin were you here back in 1989 I believe it was when we had a freak winter storm that did shut down all the bridges except for the Main St bridge. People in downtown were stuck for hours and hours. I lived in Arlington at the time and ended up going up North Main to Heckscher to the ferry and crossing over the river into Mayport and then to Arlington and still made it home faster than many. If the ferry had been shut down I would have been stuck downtown like everyone else.

[carpnter]

Can you imagine if all the bridges closed and people needed to get out of downtown?   I cross the Matthews pretty often and wondered about this contraption they placed above traffic on the bridge. 

Timkin were you here back in 1989 I believe it was when we had a freak winter storm that did shut down all the bridges except for the Main St bridge. People in downtown were stuck for hours and hours. I lived in Arlington at the time and ended up going up North Main to Heckscher to the ferry and crossing over the river into Mayport and then to Arlington and still made it home faster than many. If the ferry had been shut down I would have been stuck downtown like everyone else.

It was 1989, but it was actually the old Acosta bridge that was the only one that was open.  I had to drive from Baymeadows to the northside that night and it took about 4 hours. 

[Overstreet]

It was December 23, 1989.

If we have a hurricane you probably won't be able to reach the bridge approaches for all the debris.  Traffic actually won't have anywhere to go. We'll be shut down for several days.

[cityimrov]

Can you imagine if all the bridges closed and people needed to get out of downtown?

How do you get stuck in Downtown and needed to get out?  I don't think I-95 North needs a long bridge to escape town neither does taking I-10 East.  You have so many options to get out of downtown it's not even funny.  Being stuck in the other side of the river or even the Beaches would be more of a concern since the only practical way out of there by land is south.