Good point...will the Big Mac Bridge (yellow bridge) have the same fate being a bright yellow??

Well yeah it's only been painted twice, in 1972 when it was built and again in 2003 or 2004.  The weather and sun beat the heck out of bright paint.  Down in Miami the paint literally peals off of buildings from the sun and billboards fade within a month or two.  The row buildings around Cincinnati always look great when they've just been painted but within 3 years they need it again.  Those three identical buildings on the Vine St. hill on the right side as you go uphill just before the park were painted like parrots in 1998 and you can't even tell now. 

Buses banned on Roebling

By Margaret A. McGurk, Cincinnati Enquirer | September 11, 2007

 

The popular Southbank Shuttle is among 23 TANK routes that will no longer use the Roebling Suspension Bridge to cross the Ohio River after Kentucky officials cut the weight limit on the historic span.  The Kentucky Transportation Cabinet announced today that the maximum weight of any vehicle crossing the bridge will be cut in half, from 22 tons to 11 tons, to avoid structural damage.

 

The new limit will bar many trucks as well as bus routes operated by the Transit Authority of Northern Kentucky. TANK received advance notice to allow time to reroute buses, said cabinet spokeswoman Nancy Wood.  Weight restriction signs will be installed Monday.

 

Read full article here:

http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070911/NEWS01/309110051

This seems like a great opening to start discussing a way to get the trolley system to cross the river. Get Tank to build downtown Covington and Newport relay points that load people onto lighter weight and more frequent river crossing trolleys over the Taylor-Southgate and either the Clay-Wade Bailey or even the Suspension Bridge. It would great for the games and would get the Tank buses out of downtown traffic.

Is KY going to turn this into another Pedestrian Bridge?

 

I do not  understand this at all.  The SB is a truss, cable stay, and suspension bridge all in one.  The load it is capable of carrying should be off the charts.   It is not like the bridge is in udder disrepair.   I think their might be a hidden agenda behind this one.   ??????

 

 

I doubt they are aiming for Pedestrian status, but they may be nervous about having to spend much money on it with all the other bridges needing attention. Instead they drop it down to cars only and avoid spending serious money.

oakiehigh, the bridge dates to 1866 and is extremely old. Steel contractions and expansions have a noticeable effect on the span year after year, which is why no major bridge is really indefinite if it goes under heavy stress. Your analogy, that it should be "capable of carrying (heavy loads)" is flat out wrong; it is akin to saying that concrete roads should last forever. They don't; trucks (and heavy vehicles, like buses) have the equivilency of 300 cars on a single slab of concrete and the movement from one slab to another causes premature cracking and slab shift. Transfer that to a bridge, where the load transfer is shifting from one horizontal beam to another, and from one vertical beam (this being cable) to another, and you are only shortening the bridge's expected life expectancy. It was not designed for mammoth trucks and buses.

 

To add, there are many _other_ bridges that are more than able to carry the buses across that have higher posted weight limits. The closure of the Roebling to buses and other large vehicles is not a large defeat, since it was not designed for those weights and since its proportion of trucks to cars was already very low.

 

There is no "conspiracy" or "hidden agenda," so can we finally end the nonsense against Kentucky for once? (In other threads as well.)

There is no "conspiracy" or "hidden agenda," so can we finally end the nonsense against Kentucky for once? (In other threads as well.)

 

This move actually hurts Nky more than anything...it really puts a crimp on the TANK routes and will create longer trip times for them (plus added fuel, etc).  Cincinnati doesn't use the bridge for any kind of organized purpose like that...therefore this decission doesn't mean a whole lot for Cincinnati proper.

 

Even when you factor in other private transportation services...I think that TANK is the only service that utilizes the bridge for that type of purpose.  The others use Taylor-Southgate, Clay-Wade or one of the interstate bridges.  In all honesty it's not all that convinient of a bridge unless you are going into downtown Covington from downtown Cincinnati (which isn't all that common of a commute).

The bridge deck and anchorages could be disassembled and then new cables strung over the towers and a new deck built.  But such a project would likely cost much more than an entirely new bridge and they'd surely screw up the aesthetics.  The existing deck isn't the original one, after all, I believe it's actually the third one. 

 

Definitely, the real solution is a light rail and/or bus tunnel under the river connecting the NK transit center with Government Square.  The distance between the NK transit center and government square via the Suspension Bridge is 5,600 feet.  The distance via the Clay Wade Bailey Bridge is 10,600 feet and involves many more stop lights.  TANK will blow its fuel budget because of this mandate, adding 2 miles to thousands of monthly trips across the river.   

But a tunnel would be vastly underutilized. You cannot expect light rail to be a reality for many years, especially if you add in the extreme costs of a tunnel under the Ohio River -- which would have to be approved by the ACOE. Using the adjacent bridges (Clay Wade) is pocket change in comparison to what a tunnel would cost.

Any new bridge or modification to the shoreline requires review by the ACOE as well.  A new day when the way these projects are planned, funded, and executed is inevitable in ten years when gasoline is $5+ gallon and people get it through their skulls that it's never going back down (witness various advertising campaigns that offer breaks on groceries or whatever because of "high gas prices").  Transit systems are built very quickly in other countries, large sections of urban interstates were built very quickly here, and and when there's an urgency about it it will happen here.  An incredibly small amount of the federal budget is currently spent on capital non-highway transportation projects, less than 1%.  Sale of federally owned coastal property in California alone could fund subway systems for dozens of cities.  We have the money, that's not the isssue at all, it's attitudes.  The ACOE annual operating and capital budget for the entire inland waterways is only $450 million (I know this stat because my dad is involved), or the price of an NFL stadium to maintain and make periodic improvements to the world's greatest system of inland waterways.  And much of that $450 million comes from taxes on marine fuel.       

Any new bridge or modification to the shoreline requires review by the ACOE as well.  A new day when the way these projects are planned, funded, and executed is inevitable in ten years when gasoline is $5+ gallon and people get it through their skulls that it's never going back down (witness various advertising campaigns that offer breaks on groceries or whatever because of "high gas prices").  Transit systems are built very quickly in other countries, large sections of urban interstates were built very quickly here, and and when there's an urgency about it it will happen here.  An incredibly small amount of the federal budget is currently spent on capital non-highway transportation projects, less than 1%.  Sale of federally owned coastal property in California alone could fund subway systems for dozens of cities.  We have the money, that's not the isssue at all, it's attitudes.   The ACOE annual operating and capital budget for the entire inland waterways is only $450 million (I know this stat because my dad is involved), or the price of an NFL stadium to maintain and make periodic improvements to the world's greatest system of inland waterways.  And much of that $450 million comes from taxes on marine fuel.

 

This may be your best post EVER!!!  Very nice.

So is this still on hold.  I walk over that bridge coming from work in Covington back home to North Avondale.  This bridge needs some serious upgrading including repaving of the pedestrian walkway and attention to the rust that's all over the bridge.

Needed: Donors to light up Roebling

$350,000 would replace wiring, fixtures[

By Mike Rutledge, Cincinnati Enquirer | April 14, 2008

 

An iconic local landmark - the Roebling Suspension Bridge - may go dark for a period after it is painted unless a nonprofit committee can raise money for new high-pressure sodium lights that beautify the Ohio River span at night.

 

The Covington-Cincinnati Suspension Bridge Committee must raise at least $350,000 for new electric lines and light fixtures to replace those that Gov. Martha Layne Collins switched on in 1984. The lighting system will be removed before the bridge is repainted in the next two years.  Cincinnati financier Carl Lindner has offered $75,000.

 

Read full article here:

http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080414/NEWS0103/804140373/1077/COL02

One side of the bridge's lighting has been out for weeks.

IF NYC can light the Empire State Building with LEDs, that should be good enough for here. Aren't LEDs big energy savers.

 

What every happen to lighting the Purple People-Eater bridge? There was even a competition. I think a UC student won.

Well the purple bridge isn't purple anymore...

Envision Roebling in a rainbow of colors

Proposed lighting system could change with events

 

Picture yourself in a boat on the river, looking up at orange lights from the Roebling Suspension Bridge cutting across the Greater Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky skies.  Make that orange, red, green, blue, pink or white lights - or whatever other colors might strike the fancy of the Covington-Cincinnati Suspension Bridge Committee. Those multiple colors might happen.

 

On April 1, lights strung on the cables of the 142-year-old bridge will go dark in preparation for the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet's plans to paint the Ohio span this year.  The current golden lights have created a swooping, shining silhouette of the bridge at night since Kentucky Gov. Martha Layne Collins switched on white bulbs in 1984.

 

Read full article here:

http://nky.cincinnati.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/AB/20090111/NEWS0103/901110346

^As long as those colors are only for special occasions.  They added the same type of lighting to the top of the Radisson in Covington recently and it's obnoxious.  And I didn't think that hotel could look any worse...

For a bridge this historic in nature I think less is more when it comes to paint color and/or elements of flair.

 

KISS - Keep It Simple Stupid

Ironically, last night I was standing down at GAB  and was thinking just how sad it has started to look.  This bridge needs some extreme TLC and it does need to be something to make it stand out.  While I agree to keep it simple, I like the idea of special event lighting.  LED's would make that bridge look off the hook!!!!!!

Roebling to stick to plain lights

Bridge committee needs more time to raise money

By Mike Rutledge, Cincinnati Enquirer | March 4, 2009

 

Don't expect to see the Roebling Suspension Bridge's lights turn orange, red, green, pink - or any color other than something close to their current golden hue anytime in the next few decades.  The Covington-Cincinnati Suspension Bridge Committee, a nonprofit group that maintains the bridge's lights and flags, has voted against using colors to add flash to the bridge that's a national landmark for its history and its engineering, and also is a regional landmark as a symbol of Greater Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky.

 

But the nonprofit organization does plan to use energy-efficient light-emitting diodes.  It hopes to raise more than $300,000 to replace the lights and electric cables. It would like money from Covington and Cincinnati, Covington city commissioners learned Tuesday.  The relighting won't happen until next year, said Ron Einhaus, a committee board member.

 

Read full article here:

http://nky.cincinnati.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/AB/20090304/NEWS0103/903040369

Good to hear. What's up with painting the whole thing. I like to think this would be a good fit for Obama's stimulus. As long as it not UK blue.

I kind of hope it is a bright blue color, similar to the scheme they painted at the Ashland, Kentucky bridges:

 

 

The span in the background (shown in silver) was painted a bright green color last year.

The painting project has received 16 million dollars from OKI's allocation of KYTC funding from the Stimulus Package.  Seems like a lot of money just for the painting.  I wonder if they are doing any additional work.

im glad they are still going to use LEDs and i pray that they will be white and not try to mimic the high pressure sodium gold.

The white LED's will look fantastic. Early "white" LED's were actually near-amber, but they have been improved upon a lot.

 

Comparison of nightlights when I was shopping around for bathroom accessories (so my cat can see to go use the bathroom):

Incandescent: 4 Watt, 6000 hours, 80 lumens

Florescent: 1.3 Watt, 20000 hours, 75 lumens

LED: 0.03 Watt, 100000 hours, 50 lumens

 

Here is a breakdown of regular lightbulbs, incandescent, florescent and LED's:

http://www.productdose.com/2006/05/03/incandescent-vs-cfl-vs-led-light-bulb-challenge/

 

LED's will produce a HUGE cost savings.

 

I'm surprised Ohio hasn't retrofitted all of their traffic signals for LED's. Maybe I'll start a LED lighting thread, because San Diego is removing their HPS light fixtures and replacing them with LED's.

Moved the pictures to their own thread

Holy crap!  What fantastic pictures!  You have details here I hadn't ever really looked at before - the place where all the cables enter the columns, for one thing - that's just fantastic stuff!  I love this bridge...

 

Roebling to close for 2 weekends

Seven-month bridge closure to follow in 2010

By Brenna R. Kelly • [email protected] • October 20, 2009

 

http://nky.cincinnati.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/AB/20091020/NEWS0103/310200006/

 

The bridge will be painted a slightly darker shade of blue than the current hue, said Rob Hans, chief engineer for the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet's District 6 office.

Did they not just repaint the building, less than two years ago?  Why again?

 

    The bridge hasn't been repainted in many years. Some repairs were made in the last few years.

Roebling's erection still stands!

Wow, $16 million, up from the $6 million estimates from a decade ago.  I believe the bridge was last painted around 1980.  I wonder if this includes funds for lighting improvements.  For two years they've been having all kinds of problems with the lights.  It's rare to see both sides working. 

The Roebling Bridge, Cincinnati's first boondoggle!

Wow, $16 million, up from the $6 million estimates from a decade ago. I believe the bridge was last painted around 1980. I wonder if this includes funds for lighting improvements. For two years they've been having all kinds of problems with the lights. It's rare to see both sides working.

 

Oh, okay.  My mistake.  I could have sworn that painting was part of it last time.

Please consult a civil engineer for an erection lasting more than 100 years!

Oh my.

 

Yes, Jake, the lights are scheduled to be repaired. The wiring needs replacing. There was discussion of replacing the lights with LEDs, since they are cheaper to operate in the long-term, but because of the span's historic status, they can't.

Also, the bridge was closed for several months back around 2006.  I can't remember what work they did on it that time.  If this is going to turn into a situation where the bridge has to be closed every 5 years for work it doesn't make much sense to try and keep it going as an active bridge. 

 

Rob Hans is a really nice guy if anyone gets the chance to meet him.  He knows everything about the bridge, except what the future holds for it.  According to him the main problem facing the bridge is the crushing of iron ball bearings in the cable saddles during construction. Basically these things were crushed as the main cable was spun back in 1866 and they carried on without fixing the problem. As a result the bridge towers sway in and out by 1"-2" every year with the seasons. This is a bad situation because they're not sure what's happening at the base of each tower. It might only be moving 1mm at the base, but that's still really bad.  It's a situation where it could survive another 100 years with no problems or it could suddenly be ordered closed. 

 

The long-term solution is to close the bridge for a period of about 2 years, during which the original 1866 cable and anchorages would be removed.  New cable saddles with steel ball bearings would be installed and a new main cable spun with better anchorages. They should be able to suspend the bridge deck from the 1890's cable during this time period, as long as the bridge does not carry the load of any heavy equipment. 

That's interesting Jake!

 

Has there been any serious discussion about converting the bridge to pedestrian-only use, a la the Purple People Bridge? That would seem to be the next logical step, as you can only reduce the weight limits so much. At least the Clay Wade Bailey is nearby to handle vehicular traffic.

Has there been any serious discussion about converting the bridge to pedestrian-only use, a la the Purple People Bridge? That would seem to be the next logical step, as you can only reduce the weight limits so much. At least the Clay Wade Bailey is nearby to handle vehicular traffic.

 

I wouldn't be too surprised to see that once the Central Riverfront Park is complete. Maybe run the streetcar across? If it became pedestrian only I wonder if they'd keep the same grating in place or pave over that somehow?

Can't do the streetcar.  The modern streetcars are much heavier than the old ones, mostly because they're a lot bigger. If they were to close and retrofit the bridge, then maybe, since the towers are insanely overbuilt.  Probably more than 10X stronger than they need to be.   

Ah ok, I didn't know the Roebling couldn't handle them. Jake, do you know, if the cities of Newport/Covington wanted to add a modern streetcar line over to their respective areas, would they utilize the purple people bridge or just the southgate bridge?

 

I wonder if the Roebling becomes pedestrian only if they could ever open up or renovate one of the towers to be able to accommodate an overlook or something.

If it became pedestrian only I wonder if they'd keep the same grating in place or pave over that somehow?

 

The metal grating wouldn't be a good walking surface, but I'm sure they could replace it with wood decking that would be much more pleasant to walk on (and probably closer to what the bridge had originally). Concrete or asphalt paving would probably add too much weight to the bridge.

 

As for the streetcar, what Jake said. In addition, rail traffic in general is usually a bad idea for suspension bridges, as the weight tends to be heavily concentrated on one part of the span. That causes the bridge to behave like this:

 

^Amazing! 

I would rather they close it for a few years and make the necessary repairs as Jake suggested, than make it pedestrian only.  Since it was so well designed, it should be able to handle auto traffic for many many years.

What happens to traffic if we convert the Roebling bridge to pedestrian-only?  It seems like there's a need for traffic between the riverfront and Covington, especially with the Banks opening up within a few years.  How was traffic affected when the Purple People Bridge closed to cars?

I walked across this great bridge when I was in Cincy recently....the biggest let down was the KY side where the road splits and unfortunately we wanted to be on the other side of the street to check out the historic neighborhood to the east and head toward NOTL.  You can't see the traffic speeding around those curves....and there does not seem to be any way to get across without just running across the 4 lanes of speeding traffic.  Seemed kinda silly...like it was a little over-engineered for traffic and discouraged walking.  I suppose we could have kept following the street west and circled back...but that seemed way out of the way and did not look like a decent option either.

The approach used to just go straight and bisect the blocks south to 5th St. I remember it vaguely from when I was a kid, because you were sort of instantly in the city like the Wheeling suspension bridge.  The old approach can be seen at historicaerials.com.

 

Obviously, if the bridge is ever closed to traffic, it can be rebuilt as it once was, although the curved path probably influenced Liebeskind's design for The Ascent.