Aksarben

18 hours ago, BeerNut said:

 

Something very suspect about the traffic volume table above.....says there was no south traffic during 4 out of 7 days but gives a 7 day average and total for 7 days?  You really want us to believe there was no traffic at all for 4 days?

11 minutes ago, ToryGattis said:

 

Jeff from the City said that Bill Fulton of the Kinder Institute at Rice reached out to get them to look at other options rather than just replace the bridge.

....and did he provide what economic/traffic impacts that change would inflict...or was it a "hey I have an idea".......

I attended a meeting last night regarding this project and these are questions that need to be answered:

• How will the traffic on Smith Street be affected by the two planned high-rises (20 story) being built along that street?  Cars departing both plan on using Smith Street as it’s garage exit and the traffic study for both counted on the Bagby Bridge being in place.

• The cost of replacing the Bagby Bridge was in hand and planned, but at some point someone or entity came in and proposed removing the bridge.....who was that entity?

• The homeless problem was brought up and the city reps said it shouldn’t be a problem, they gave the example of low homeless #’s of other green areas like Buffalo Bayou Park.  It was pointed out that unlike Buffalo Bayou Park, we have multiple soup kitchens and shelters within 5 blocks of the proposed project.  They seemed perplexed by the facts.  (and for those that think the homeless may limit themselves to the green area once camped, will be sadly mistaken).

• We asked where the project docket is located so that we could view all comments sent in; they had no information on how to let the public view comments.

• We asked why they haven’t had public meetings on the subject.  They couldn’t answer the question.

• We asked who will make the final decision the city council or the mayor’s office.  We were told that a recommendation would be made to the mayor.  As a follow-up they couldn’t explain how input would impact the recommendation.

The cost of replacing the bridge and putting in the green zone will be the same. 

The contract for replacing the bridge was already in place and then cancelled.

Until the above questions can be answered, I will not be climbing on the removal bandwagon.