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Boston's newest bridge hoisted into place

News @ Northeastern reports on a new pedestrian bridge dropped into place (very, very carefully) over the Northeast Corridor and Orange Line train tracks over the weekend to connect the Fenway and Roxbury parts of the Northeastern campus. It took a week just to assemble the crane that would put the bridge in place.

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Hopefully they did a better job that the folks who dropped in a quick and easy pedestrian bridge in Florida which then collapsed on the road killing people.

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This bridge at Northeastern is made of STEEL not post tensioned concrete as in Miami or Italy where catastrophic collapse occurred recently

Steel doesn't fail catastrophically like concrete -- it just stretches and sags as it is perfectly happy being either in tension or compression

You can walk on a newly installed Steel Bridge over Storrow Drive at the Charles MBTA Red Line Station

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I wonder if it cost tens of millions of dollars like the one they're talking about putting near Alewife Station in Cambridge.

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That's really cool, and really useful! Where is it, exactly?

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That's Columbus Ave on the right in the linked article photo looking towards Downtown. Ruggles would be behind you.

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It runs between the new ISEC on the south side of the tracks, and the library on the north side.

As a Northeastern alum, I find it ridiculously pointless and redundant. It's located between two existing pedestrian bridges that are only 540 ft apart. I guess they just wanted a way to show off the new building to VIPs without them having to climb stairs or see the "ugly" side of buildings. My tuition dollars being put to great use!

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...it's not your tuition dollars. But thanks for the info.

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I graduated recently enough that they had already begun construction on the ISEC, and at the very least design of this bridge. My tuition dollars definitely contributed to it.

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It is replacing one of the pedestrian bridges (the one that used to go alongside the Columbus lot). The other access points between the sides of campus are through a parking garage and through Ruggles T station. So, while technically, yes, it's redundant, it will be a pedestrian-only route that is Northeastern property - neither of the other two routes across the tracks have both of those qualities.

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Is it open to the public? And is it a convenient route without lots of detours through buildings?

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My understanding is that it will be open to the public in that anyone can use it, although I'm sure it will be considered private property like the rest of campus. It will not go through any buildings - entrances at ground level outdoors on both sides.

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It created a long accessible ramp across the two sides of campus which didn't exist before. The other routes have stairs, or require elevators through parking garages or Ruggles Station.

Also added a nice bit of roof over the commuter rail and orange line platforms. Hopefully it won't become an expensive pigeon nest!

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It only goes over the commuter rail platform, not the Orange Line platform. And for now, anyways, it's over the part of the CR platform that's closed, although I think that section might reopen as part of the MBTA construction of another platform to permit more trains to stop.

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It created a long accessible ramp across the two sides of campus which didn't exist before.

The existing overpass behind the Columbus garage was already accessible (ramps on both sides), without requiring you to go through the garage or Ruggles or use any elevators.

Yes, this adds another accessible route, which is a good thing, but it's incorrect to say an accessible route didn't already exist.

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