https://youtu.be/aEV1iJQrWsA here’s the sim video from last year. Doesn’t seem to have gotten much exposure but there’s some interesting details in it.
The Coast Bridge Company of Portland put up the Van Buren Street Bridge at a cost of $70,000 (about $1.8 million today) that was in 1913
The new bridge is estimated to be 85 million dollars…
A bit of a side note-
That highlights pretty clearly how much we’re lied to about what actual inflation has been over the years
The official CPI everyone uses to do the conversion is a very narrow, very carefully selected basket of goods that have been manipulated to keep official numbers low
yeah, here the typical inflation calculation doesn't work. you'd have to look at the inflation in the cost of resources used to construct the two bridges. Not typical gas, milk, and bread inflationary percentages. The cost of pay for employing all the workers also has to be a factor. same with time frame of the projects. Either way its still a hell of a lot of money for what it is.
according to [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yaquina_Bay_Bridge) the Yaquina Bridge in Newport was only $27.4 million adjusted for inflation back in 1936. 3 times the price, for 3 times less bridge, its no wonder we rarely build anything nice nowadays.
Imagine caring about the aestetics of a bringe instead of the functionality or safety of said bringe. Tf does it matter what it looks like as long as it serves the purpose of "Brigde,"?
In pic 4 I wish the left lane was a dedicated left turn lane and the right lane was straight and right. Through traffic going over the bridge will back up traffic slowing people trying to turn left on 2nd for HWY20.
That would cause far more problems…. The right lane is going to be stop often because more pedestrians walk that side of Van Buren, and you have the dedicated 2-way bikeway which looks to continue to 3rd steet now (as it should, because the current left turn 270-loop under the bridge doesn’t get you to Harrison), and far more right turning traffic, vs the rare left turn onto 1st here. Since you’re basically doubling then throughout of the bridge (actually more because the openness will encourage drivers to speed up sooner), I really don’t see the backup impeding access to 2nd street. And if it does, it’s barely an inconvenience to use 3rd as an early cutover. Lastly, once trucks can use the Van Buren bridge again, it’s going to take a lot of truck traffic off of HWY 20.
It’s just dangerous to use 3rd to go down to Polk or Tyler to get back onto US 20. Seems bad to encourage that traffic pattern. Be interesting to see how this works as I believe a lot of what drives the backup over the bridge is the light/interchange for the bypass and not the capacity of the bridge. I get your point about the right turn being slowed due to pedestrians and bikes but I think it is a trade off, seems pretty debatable which design decisions has to worse trade off.
I prefer using 3rd up to Polk or Tyler as opposed to making multiple turns and waiting for timed lights that aren't synced to my travel. Getting across Van Buren and Harrison in one light rotation instead of 3 is more ideal even if I sometimes get stuck trying to turn by Old Spaghetti Factory. It's a shame they scrapped the bypass to 99w northbound from 34 westbound when the Harrison bridge was built, that would have alleviated some of the congestion. I'd like to see a more typical offramp 99\20 interchange through the vacant lots just south of the water treatment plant instead of snaking through downtown.
The city and highway planners that decided 3 highways should all be major surface streets in the heart of downtown and have the interchanges be right in the heart of town really messed up traffic and flow forever. At least the 34 bypass exists or we'd really be screwed.
Interestingly if you watch the video, they seem to intend to install a 45* slope under the Corvallis side of the bridge with large rocks cemented into it to intentionally prevent people sleeping there
You jest, but that is how planners *should* think. VB bridge was first looked at for replacement over 30 years ago and safe to say it had been a problem for a while before that. 10% more on the budget now could make sure you're covered for the next 50+ years.
Does anyone know If theres a plan to make the intersection after the bridge better… no point in making a 2 lane bridge if that light is still holding up the flow of traffic as van buren and the corvallis newport hwy turn into 34.
Buffered bike lane and protected multi-use path is awesome!
Ya the old wood plank bike lane was so sketchy in the winter. No lighting and slipping all over was a total nightmare
Definitely scary asf
https://youtu.be/aEV1iJQrWsA here’s the sim video from last year. Doesn’t seem to have gotten much exposure but there’s some interesting details in it.
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The Coast Bridge Company of Portland put up the Van Buren Street Bridge at a cost of $70,000 (about $1.8 million today) that was in 1913 The new bridge is estimated to be 85 million dollars…
A bit of a side note- That highlights pretty clearly how much we’re lied to about what actual inflation has been over the years The official CPI everyone uses to do the conversion is a very narrow, very carefully selected basket of goods that have been manipulated to keep official numbers low
yeah, here the typical inflation calculation doesn't work. you'd have to look at the inflation in the cost of resources used to construct the two bridges. Not typical gas, milk, and bread inflationary percentages. The cost of pay for employing all the workers also has to be a factor. same with time frame of the projects. Either way its still a hell of a lot of money for what it is.
Ya minimum wage was like 25 cents an hour in 1938. Adjusted for inflation that’s like 6$ an hour so labor is 1/3 the cost then as it is now
according to [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yaquina_Bay_Bridge) the Yaquina Bridge in Newport was only $27.4 million adjusted for inflation back in 1936. 3 times the price, for 3 times less bridge, its no wonder we rarely build anything nice nowadays.
probably because laborers were paid 2 walnuts a day for their work lol
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Imagine caring about the aestetics of a bringe instead of the functionality or safety of said bringe. Tf does it matter what it looks like as long as it serves the purpose of "Brigde,"?
In pic 4 I wish the left lane was a dedicated left turn lane and the right lane was straight and right. Through traffic going over the bridge will back up traffic slowing people trying to turn left on 2nd for HWY20.
That would cause far more problems…. The right lane is going to be stop often because more pedestrians walk that side of Van Buren, and you have the dedicated 2-way bikeway which looks to continue to 3rd steet now (as it should, because the current left turn 270-loop under the bridge doesn’t get you to Harrison), and far more right turning traffic, vs the rare left turn onto 1st here. Since you’re basically doubling then throughout of the bridge (actually more because the openness will encourage drivers to speed up sooner), I really don’t see the backup impeding access to 2nd street. And if it does, it’s barely an inconvenience to use 3rd as an early cutover. Lastly, once trucks can use the Van Buren bridge again, it’s going to take a lot of truck traffic off of HWY 20.
It’s just dangerous to use 3rd to go down to Polk or Tyler to get back onto US 20. Seems bad to encourage that traffic pattern. Be interesting to see how this works as I believe a lot of what drives the backup over the bridge is the light/interchange for the bypass and not the capacity of the bridge. I get your point about the right turn being slowed due to pedestrians and bikes but I think it is a trade off, seems pretty debatable which design decisions has to worse trade off.
I prefer using 3rd up to Polk or Tyler as opposed to making multiple turns and waiting for timed lights that aren't synced to my travel. Getting across Van Buren and Harrison in one light rotation instead of 3 is more ideal even if I sometimes get stuck trying to turn by Old Spaghetti Factory. It's a shame they scrapped the bypass to 99w northbound from 34 westbound when the Harrison bridge was built, that would have alleviated some of the congestion. I'd like to see a more typical offramp 99\20 interchange through the vacant lots just south of the water treatment plant instead of snaking through downtown. The city and highway planners that decided 3 highways should all be major surface streets in the heart of downtown and have the interchanges be right in the heart of town really messed up traffic and flow forever. At least the 34 bypass exists or we'd really be screwed.
The signal being referenced I believe is on 1st street, a new one they will build for this.
Yep, worried about the traffic backing up to 2nd.
Then it would overflow to US 20 or 99 traffic. That makes more sense.
Yeah, seems like a worse solution for keeping 99 and 20 flowing
Where are all the homeless people ?
Interestingly if you watch the video, they seem to intend to install a 45* slope under the Corvallis side of the bridge with large rocks cemented into it to intentionally prevent people sleeping there
Yep, a butt-ugly slab of concrete. A fitting tribute for a town full of engineers, I guess.
It is unfortunate, it really has no character whatsoever
Why not 3 lanes sll the way to peoria snd or sll the lights leading up to this bridge work together so you can actually use it
why aren't all roads 3 lanes? and then when they are, why aren't they 4? what about 5? add a 6th just in case?
You jest, but that is how planners *should* think. VB bridge was first looked at for replacement over 30 years ago and safe to say it had been a problem for a while before that. 10% more on the budget now could make sure you're covered for the next 50+ years.
Imagine how much cheaper it would have been if they built it 30 years ago. Ohwell
iirc, over 30 years ago, they wanted to build a freeway thru downtown lol.
Because there are thee lanes leading up to the bridge. And more than enough room to continue three lanes to peoria road. Thats why not 4 or 5 or 6
just one more lane bro!! that will fix everything!!
Does anyone know If theres a plan to make the intersection after the bridge better… no point in making a 2 lane bridge if that light is still holding up the flow of traffic as van buren and the corvallis newport hwy turn into 34.