This was a first for me...saw someone driving a motor scooter on the pedestrian walk 

 

...and a Bird scooter abandoned mid-bridge:

Edited May 28, 20196 yr by jmecklenborg

On 5/24/2019 at 9:35 AM, IAGuy39 said:

I get really frustrated when I think of the Cranley years. Now, you are seeing a ton of development in NKY and not really a whole lot in the City of Cincinnati, compared to what I feel like it could be. I know there are some big projects cooking but so many missed opportunities, like fixing the streetcar, the actual road diet of Liberty Street, etc.

Or working towards getting a bridge to connect the west side to the booming employment around the airport....

The Blink Festival brought more pedestrian traffic to the bridge than it has experienced in decades.  No less an authority than Rob Hans from the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet warns about pedestrians damaging the bridge when he leads tours.  Apparently a crowd leaving a Bengals game in the mid-1980s did significant damage to the bridge.  

 

 

^ A friend was crossing the bridge during Blink and said that the bridge was so overwhelmed with pedestrians it was swaying from side to side, to the point where he felt like the bridge might actually collapse. This was early in the day on Thursday when a lot of pedestrians were crossing not only on the sidewalks but on the road deck itself. Eventually they made pedestrians stay on the sidewalks and the road deck was only open to Oggo vehicles. By Sunday night they had made each of the sidewalks "one way" -- the east sidewalk became northbound to Covington, the west sidewalk became southbound to Cincinnati.

1 hour ago, taestell said:

^ A friend was crossing the bridge during Blink and said that there were so many pedestrians crossing that the bridge was swaying from side to side, to the point where he felt like the bridge might actually collapse. This was early in the day on Thursday when a lot of pedestrians were crossing not only on the sidewalks but on the road deck itself. Eventually they made pedestrians stay on the sidewalks and the road deck was only open to Oggo vehicles. By Sunday night they had made each of the sidewalks "one way" -- the east sidewalk became northbound to Covington, the west sidewalk became southbound to Cincinnati.

 

I don't understand why this was allowed to happen.  Damage to the bridge from pedestrian takeovers is a known problem.  When I saw that huge crowd on the bridge on Friday night I was fearful of a problem, and did not feel compelled to walk onto the bridge myself.   

I guess the "Oggo only" thing was the organizers' attempt to mitigate heavy loads. And somehow they neglected to realize the inevitable rule-breaking caused by having a major pedestrian chokepoint. Or maybe they just didn't emphasize the issue enough to police.

 

They should have allowed bicycles on the main deck. I don't imagine allowing bicycles would have added much in terms of weight.

 

Hopefully no major damage was caused.

Having Oggo be the official transportation across the bridge was the organizers' attempt to be cute and work with a local "tech startup." What they could have done is:

• Since the Southbank Shuttle was detoured into the Transit Center and was not using the Roebling Bridge during Blink, use regular full-sized TANK buses to run the SBS route.
• Take the small decorated buses that usually run the SBS route, and have them go back and forth across the Roebling, just like Oggo did. (I don't know how many people each decorated bus can hold but it's way more than what an Oggo can hold.)

 

^i think bus fumes would have made being stuck in the crowd even worse

I have moved the discussion of the Blink event itself to the appropriate thread. Please keep this thread focused on the Roebling.

On 10/15/2019 at 2:33 PM, jmecklenborg said:

I don't understand why this was allowed to happen.  Damage to the bridge from pedestrian takeovers is a known problem.  When I saw that huge crowd on the bridge on Friday night I was fearful of a problem, and did not feel compelled to walk onto the bridge myself.   

 

Meanwhile in West Virginia, the Wheeling Suspension Bridge has been closed to automobiles for at least a year. Vehicles above the weight limit frequently ignore the posted signs and cross anyway, despite the installation of barriers to keep oversized vehicles off the bridge earlier this year. It seems like they should install ramp meters on the bridge similar to what we see on highway on ramps, to keep vehicles spaced out and limit the number of vehicles on the bridge at once.

Wow, only a 2-ton weight limit?  That's pretty scary.  

What's crazy about all of this is that there hasn't been a call to retrofit the suspension bridge to make it able to carry city buses and box trucks once more. 

Since these bridges were built or previously modified to take on much higher loads, I assume now it's not so much a matter of retrofitting as it would be rebuilding.  

Finally! Here's when Roebling Bridge will reopen

By Meg Erpenbeck  –  Digital editor, Cincinnati Business Courier

Apr 6, 2022 

 

After a 14-month closure and rounds of delays, the John A. Roebling Suspension Bridge is set to reopen this week.

 

On Wednesday, the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet announced the bridge will reopen to car traffic Friday, April 8. The historic bridge originally closed to cars in February 2021 and its reopening was delayed indefinitely in January.

 

The Roebling's closure is part of a long-planned, $4.7 million restoration project. Some work is left remaining that will necessitate warmer weather and some land closures in the coming months, officials said in a news release.

 

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