Chicago has its lakefront. San Francisco — the Golden Gate.

Charleston, SC — known mostly for narrow streets and Greek Revival architecture — recently joined their ranks by leveraging the largest infrastructure investment in its history as a tourist destination.

Tourists and residents flock to the new Cooper River Bridge, opened in 2005. Part of the attraction of the $700 million bridge — with its cable-stay design and two diamond-shaped towers — is the beautiful view of the ocean bay between Charleston and Mt. Pleasant on Highway 17.

But, it’s the meeting of high-technology and a humanizing element — a bike/pedestrian path built on the bridge but separated from the roadway by a 3 ft. concrete ‘jersey’ barrier — that's really enhancing the experience.

On a typical weekend, parents push baby strollers, large groups of Spandexed cyclists roll by, and a young couple recently exchanged marital vows on the bridge path — which is 10 feet wide on either side, divided into 4 ft. for pedestrians and 6 ft. for cyclists.

“This was a once in a generation opportunity to get across the river,” says Tom Dodds of the South Carolina Department of Transportation (SCDOT). “It’s an attraction. Biking or walking it is a good Saturday morning thing to do. Where you touch down on the Mt. Pleasant side, people head to the aquarium or to see some of the WWII ships, subs and the naval museum.”

Building a bike/ped path on a bridge wasn’t without its challenges. But, plenty of vocal support from the community helped secure a commitment from the department of transportation.

“We took a gamble,” admits Dodds. “SCDOT decided, if that’s what the town wants, we’ll go forward. We did it with a design-build consortium. Charleston’s advisory bike group came out of this, and Dr. Don Sparks of the League of American Bicyclists helped out considerably.”

The success of the path has led SCDOT to work on improving connections at either end of the bridge. “You come down to a sidewalk on one side and, on the other end, is a container ship yard where we’ve acquired a little land for a better bike/ped walkway,” he says.

Grades coming on or off the bridge are five percent. That’s not bad, Dodds says.

“Since it was an adjunct to the host structure of a highway bridge, we didn’t feel like we had to build this as a pedestrian path. Accommodating purely for pedestrians you would use different guidelines.”

Upon being told that Cleveland is investing in a new Innerbelt Bridge and members of the community also want to see a bike/ped path included, Dodd asked if pedestrians currently can use the bridge (they can).

“You know, federal law requires that if you have an existing bridge and you legally tolerate pedestrians, if federal funds are used, you have to provide for (access).”

We know.

In December, 2006 ODOT announced the design for the new Innerbelt bridge will be a single-tower cable stay design. The bridge design subcommittee is still calling for design guidelines for both the new and existing bridge, and officially supports a bike/ped facility on the bridge.  

On September 13, 2006 The Ohio Department of Transportation presented the second cut of designs for the new Central Viaduct bridge over the Cuyahoga River Valley. ODOT is currently considering three bridge types (steel arch, two-tower cable stay and a single tower cable stay). The city of Cleveland, the Innerbelt Bridge Design Subcommittee, and GreenCityBlueLake have expressed their desire for ODOT to include a bike/ped path on the bridge.

Renderings of the three bridge types may be viewed and comments submitted by visiting ODOT's website: www.innerbelt.org. Click on the Central Viaduct icon and then on the link labeled click here to see the Central Viaduct Bridge Types.

Resources
Image gallery of Cooper River Bridge bike/ped path