Here is a look at some of the transportation headlines gathered by us and the Metro Library. The full list of headlines is posted on the Library’s Headlines blog, which you can also access via email subscription or RSS feed.
HNTB's proposal for the new viaduct. Courtesy HNTB.
Visions for the 6th Street Bridge (The Architect's Newspaper)
Check out the renderings for the three finalists competing to design a new 6th Street Bridge in downtown Los Angeles. Memo to city of Los Angeles webmeisters/flacks: unless I was looking in all the wrong places, I couldn't find the renderings on the city's website. I think all three proposals are pretty neat-o and this is a good chance for the city to make a nice architectural statement in a part of town that needs something (actually anything) to spruce it up.
For the sake of comparison, below is the Sundial Bridge that opened in 2004 in Redding. It spans the Sacramento River.
Photo: Wikimedia Commons.
BHUSD Board opposes Measure J (Beverly Hills Patch)
The surprise isn't that the Board opposed it — it's that it wasn't unanimous. Two Board Members — Jake Manaster and Noah Margo — abstained, saying it wasn't appropriate for the Board to take a position on a ballot measure. Measure J is a 30-year extension of the Measure R sales tax and seeks to accelerate the construction of transit and road projects, including the Westside Subway Extension. It will go to L.A. County voters on Nov. 6 if Gov. Brown signs a bill, AB 1446, in the next few weeks.
Marchers protest at Union Station (L.A. Times)
About 200 people marched through the train station, complaining that Metro is partnering with big box stores (not true) and depriving the community of affordable housing (also not true). In fact, affordable housing is a big part of the transit-oriented developments in which Metro is a partner. Here's yesterday's post with Metro's more complete response to the Bus Riders Union and other protestors.
Fossil fuel TV ads dominate TV campaign (New York Times)
Clean energy and doing something, or anything, about climate change aren't quite as popular as they were during the 2008 election cycle. Excerpt:
With nearly two months before Election Day on Nov. 6, estimated spending on television ads promoting coal and more oil and gas drilling or criticizing clean energy has exceeded $153 million this year, according to an analysis by The New York Times of 138 ads on energy issues broadcast this year by the presidential campaigns, political parties, energy companies, trade associations and third-party spenders.
Part of that effort is the American Petroleum Institute's “Vote for Energy” campaign. Interestingly, the campaign's website talks about the oil and gas industry's efforts to reduce greenhouse gases, but conveniently forgets to mention why greenhouse gases are being reduced. It's probably just an editing error, right?
Posted with BlogsyCategories: Transportation Headlines
I love the design of the HNTB proposal but I am afraid what it will look like when the taggers have at it. I hope the MTA increases the anti-graffiti funding. The bridges in Southern California need some extra lovin’!
As for the viaduct, AECOM’s design is the least attractive. Parson’s-Brinckerhoff’s has a fatal design flaw. HNTB is by far the most memorable. It offers numerous vantage opportunities for pedestrians (shown in another render); they walk up through and over its arches. It would be fun to explore on foot, checking out the high and low points in a quite literal sense. On the other hand, the Parsons’ design doesn’t pass pedestrian scrutiny. Who want’s to walk down the middle of the street? With cars zooming past in both directions, the experience would rival Metro’s light rail stations in freeway medians, noisy and confining. Also, it pulls people away from the best views along the bridge’s edges. The walkway is little more than a very long ramp to a suspended viewing platform. So much for savoring a stroll along the bridge. It’s more like hurry up and get to a retreat.
These bridges look fantastic. I’m curious if the consdieration to extend the redline in this direction (4th Olympic and 7th getting new stations as I seen on laist) is in the plans at all, or if that is just a pipe dream. To connect the arts district more so than the regional connector already will would be really awesome!