Thursday, November 15, 2012

The new Stadium Bridge: A review

The first thing everyone should know about the new Stadium Bridge, is that it's is actually two bridges. The bridge we are most familiar with passes over south State Street between Henry and Rose. The second bridge is just west of the first bridge and spans the Ann Arbor Railroad's tracks. The bridge opened yesterday after being closed for about a year. I drove over it after stopping at Biercamp and the Produce Station. Here is my review:

The bridge is nice. The lanes are wider than the previous Stadium Bridge so you don't feel quite so claustrophobic when driving across it. The surface was very smooth but appeared to be asphalt, so it will be interesting to see how it weathers. On the north side of the bridge, there is a nice sidewalk with stairs going down to State Street. You have to admire the bridge for improving pedestrian connectivity in the area. The lights appear to be metal halide, or maybe "White SON"-high pressure sodium lamps. So they have a nicer color temperature than the standard HPS lamps. Still, if these are not LED lamps, as they appear, I feel like this is a real missed opportunity. As the city replaces old street lights, shouldn't they be replacing them with LED lamps? Though the lights on the bridge appear to be traditional streetlight, they are in fate stealth LED lamps that had at least one prominent local blogger fooled. Overall I'd give the bridge 3.75 4.25 out of 5. Props for the wider lanes, LED streetlights and pedestrian access.

3 comments:

  1. From an article on the bridge in the DotCom:

    "The new LED overhead street lights along the new East Stadium Boulevard bridges also need to be electronically synced. For the first several days, Nearing said they would be manually operated."

    Walking on the bridge on Sunday, it was poured concrete. Did they pave over it? I don't drive much during the week so haven't gone over it yet.

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  2. Thank's for the info Chris. The post will be corrected.

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  3. and bike lanes?!?! 6 out of 5!

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