Conceptual Trail Design for Manayunk Bridge - What do you think?

Board Reduced

Last Thursday (September 15th) Whitman, Requardt and Associates, LLP presented a concept design for the Manayunk Bridge that will connect the (soon to open) Cynwyd Trail over to Manayunk at a public meeting held in Ardmore. The Manayunk Bridge, an asset owned by SEPTA, spans both the City of Philadelphia and Lower Merion Township. The City received $1.3 million from PennDOT's Community Transportation Initiative in 2010 for constructing a trail and funds from the William Penn Foundation have been made available for its design.

The main goal of this design is to accommodate both passive and active users of the Bridge safely. The Bridge will be both a destination and a transportation corridor. Many different types of users will want to use the bridge for different purposes, ranging from cyclists using it as a commuting route to people wanting to enjoy the views while walking or sitting. Several media outlets reported on the meeting, including Main Line Times Trail Link or "Park in the Sky, the Roxborough-Manayunk Patch Residents Share Safety Concerns About Manayunk Bridge and Newsworks 'Exciting but daunting' Manayunk Bridge trail project continues on limited time frame

Scott Page Interface Studios introduced the project and was followed by Jeff Reigner of WRA LLP made the main presentation. They walked the audience through the following power point presentation and then showed a large board showing the proposed design and asked for comment.

The underlying premise of the design is that bicyclists and pedestrians would be have separate paths entering from either side of the bridge before the paths would narrow and funnel people into the Bridge's 500 feet long center. The center of the Bridge would be a large open space for more passive uses such as viewing, sitting and people moving around the bridge from one side to the other.

What do you think of this concept? Please take a few minutes to go through the power point and look over the aerial view of the trail design. Comments are still welcome and should be sent to jriegner@wrallp.com
Manayunk+15+September[1]