Razors Edge ★ Posted July 12, 2018 Share #1 Posted July 12, 2018 ...and by "stuff", I mean a proposed overpass of a mildly busy road? ------------------------------------------ An aerial bridge on the Washington & Old Dominion Trail over Wiehle Avenue could be constructed by October 2022. Earlier this week, the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors approved final design plans for the project, which is expected to cost $11.4 million, according to the Fairfax County Department of Transportation. The bridge includes retaining walls and directional access to Wiehle Avenue for trail users. Wiehle Avenue would be widened from Sunset Hills Road to the Reston Fire Station property in order to make way for future on-road bike lanes. Plans have long been identified by the Reston Metrorail Access Group’s plan to improve vehicle, bicycle and pedestrian access near the new Wiehle-Reston East Metrorail Station. Robin Geiger, a spokeswoman for FCOD, said design plans are currently 90 percent complete. The project timeline expects utility design and relocation to take a little over a year-and-a-half, land acquisition to take a year, construction authorization and permitting to take eight months and construction to take one year. ------------------------------------------ Tom Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jsharr ★ Posted July 12, 2018 Share #2 Posted July 12, 2018 Bureaucracy makes everything better. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TrentonMakes Posted July 12, 2018 Share #3 Posted July 12, 2018 Certainly they could build a cheaper overpass, but I would expect it's the presence of the trail that's increasing the cost. I suspect that the agency that manages the WOD is going to look for aesthetic/decorative treatments that add dollars. It reminds me of a bridge that was built over Route 1 just outside of Trenton, along the Delaware & Raritan Canal - as I recall that bridge [only?] cost $4M, but it was built probably ten years ago, at least. A "typical" highway bridge with steel beams, a concrete deck and wire fencing would have been a lot cheaper. ADA design guidelines also really increase the cost of overpasses like this because there's a maximum grade, and then you need to provide a flat landing (i.e. resting) area every so often. So you need a whole lot of horizontal ramp to make up a vertical clearance of 16 or more feet. Route 1 at this bridge is about 95 feet wide, but the total length of the structure with ramps is over 750 feet. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Razors Edge ★ Posted July 12, 2018 Author Share #4 Posted July 12, 2018 6 minutes ago, jsharr said: Bureaucracy makes everything better. They could pay a crossing guard $100,000 a year for a century! Job creation! Tom 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Further Posted July 12, 2018 Share #5 Posted July 12, 2018 A million just doesn't go very far today. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
parodybot Posted July 12, 2018 Share #6 Posted July 12, 2018 1 hour ago, Razors Edge said: They could pay a crossing guard $100,000 a year for a century! Job creation! Tom Why would you need a crossing guard on a pedestrian bridge? Is this near @Road Runners place? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Longjohn ★ Posted July 12, 2018 Share #7 Posted July 12, 2018 The Amish could build it in two days for around $10,000 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Further Posted July 12, 2018 Share #8 Posted July 12, 2018 A guy at work told me estimated that his divorce cost him a hundred grand Said the reason it was so expensive was that it was worth it..... 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JerrySTL ★ Posted July 12, 2018 Share #9 Posted July 12, 2018 2 hours ago, Razors Edge said: They could pay a crossing guard $100,000 a year for a century! Job creation! Tom For 24x7 coverage you would need 5 crossing guards to cover days off, vacations, and sick time. Plus they would have to be willing to work various shifts. So you are up to a half million$ a year. You'd probably need a supervisor also. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
a bunch of numbers Posted July 12, 2018 Share #10 Posted July 12, 2018 Considering it's location, that probably has something to do with it. Plus widening the road isn't cheap. We had one similar built a few years back that was said to cost a little over $2M and people were complaining about that. But, it didn't cost the tax payer anything extra because the park paid for it with grants, and their own money. I was glad to see it built, I use it all the time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dottleshead ★ Posted July 13, 2018 Share #11 Posted July 13, 2018 For a good laugh it costs $12 million dollars to build a one mile bike lane through the city of Seattle. It's a laugh a minute. That's what you call kick backs and/or embezzlement. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Longjohn ★ Posted July 13, 2018 Share #12 Posted July 13, 2018 54 minutes ago, JerrySTL said: You'd probably need 5 supervisors also. FIFY 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dottleshead ★ Posted July 13, 2018 Share #13 Posted July 13, 2018 https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/transportation/12-million-a-mile-heres-how-bike-lane-costs-shot-sky-high-in-seattle/ Scam-alert. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prophet Zacharia Posted July 13, 2018 Share #14 Posted July 13, 2018 Tariffs! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dottleshead ★ Posted July 13, 2018 Share #15 Posted July 13, 2018 No way in hell I would ever live in the city limits of Seattle Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Longjohn ★ Posted July 13, 2018 Share #16 Posted July 13, 2018 No way in hell would I live in the city limits of anywhere. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Razors Edge ★ Posted July 13, 2018 Author Share #17 Posted July 13, 2018 13 hours ago, JerrySTL said: For 24x7 coverage you would need 5 crossing guards to cover days off, vacations, and sick time. Plus they would have to be willing to work various shifts. So you are up to a half million$ a year. You'd probably need a supervisor also. All right. How much does a blinking crosswalk cost? That can't be $10 million! Tom Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. Silly Posted July 13, 2018 Share #18 Posted July 13, 2018 17 hours ago, Razors Edge said: Earlier this week, the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors approved final design plans for the project, which is expected to cost $11.4 million, according to the Fairfax County Department of Transportation. I am willing to construct a bridge like this one for $11.2 million 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Parsnip Totin Jack ★ Posted July 13, 2018 Share #19 Posted July 13, 2018 2 hours ago, Mr. Silly said: I am willing to construct a bridge like this one for $11.2 million Does your bid include the backdrop or just the bridge? I'd like nice scenery like that in Reston 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dottleshead ★ Posted July 13, 2018 Share #20 Posted July 13, 2018 5 hours ago, Longjohn said: No way in hell would I live in the city limits of anywhere. We still don't have that floor foundation done for my firewood shed so I'm temporarily stacking it on pallets to get it off the ground after about 2 months and getting the air circulating. I want/need to burn it this winter. I was trying to hold off to prevent double work but it doesn't look like it will happen. It's amazing how long these things take to complete when one is working a full time job. It's why people pay money to contractors to do it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jsharr ★ Posted July 13, 2018 Share #21 Posted July 13, 2018 54 minutes ago, Old#7 said: Does your bid include the backdrop or just the bridge? I'd like nice scenery like that in Reston I believe that was shot at Mount Reston. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Longjohn ★ Posted July 13, 2018 Share #22 Posted July 13, 2018 1 hour ago, Dottles said: We still don't have that floor foundation done for my firewood shed so I'm temporarily stacking it on pallets to get it off the ground after about 2 months and getting the air circulating. I want/need to burn it this winter. I was trying to hold off to prevent double work but it doesn't look like it will happen. It's amazing how long these things take to complete when one is working a full time job. It's why people pay money to contractors to do it. You need some Amish neighbors. They could have that finished tomorrow and probably charge you less than you are going to spend on materials. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dottleshead ★ Posted July 13, 2018 Share #23 Posted July 13, 2018 Just now, Longjohn said: You need some Amish neighbors. They could have that finished tomorrow and probably charge you less than you are going to spend on materials. You're right! I do need Amish neighbors. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dottleshead ★ Posted July 13, 2018 Share #24 Posted July 13, 2018 8 minutes ago, Longjohn said: You need some Amish neighbors. They could have that finished tomorrow and probably charge you less than you are going to spend on materials. We are making good progress on it though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Longjohn ★ Posted July 13, 2018 Share #25 Posted July 13, 2018 When my contractor tore down my old deck I repurposed the treated wood and built a wood shed from it. I ordered extra metal roofing when I had my house and garage done so everything matches. I have less than $100 in it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MickinMD ★ Posted July 14, 2018 Share #26 Posted July 14, 2018 I can only imagine how much they spent on this about 400 foot-long bike-trail bridge high over Route 100 in Maryland. It is a lot of fun to ride over - when there's no snow! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Razors Edge ★ Posted July 14, 2018 Author Share #27 Posted July 14, 2018 8 hours ago, MickinMD said: I can only imagine how much they spent on this about 400 foot-long bike-trail bridge high over Route 100 in Maryland. The Wiehle bridge/tunnel/fix SHOULD have been part of the 2014 infrastructure improvements due to the expansion of the Metro & the new Silver line. To my eye, very little infrastructure was actually improved at the Wiehle station other than a widening of the bridge over the toll road - which, not incidentally, made the trail intersection MORE dangerous due to much increased road traffic and higher levels of driver frustration in that area. Bridges like the one you show are often part of road widening (495 HOT lanes gave us a better bridge over the beltway) and way out in Ashburn, a widening of Belmont Ridge gave us a really nice underpass of a previously very dangerous intersection. I imagine it is easier to hide costs in the bigger projects than in stand-alone ones, but it is also easy to screw over everyone except cars & trucks. Never mind that getting unnecessary cars OFF the road is better for everyone. Tom 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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