Veterans' Bridge Replacement Details

Here are some detailed plans of the new Veteran's Bridge, following up on my post from last week. I'll post more detailed thoughts later, but here's my quick take.

Things to like:

• Valley Street near Barber Foods will get smaller, with only five turn lanes, as opposed to six. The extra space will go towards a wider, safer sidewalk on the west side of the street;
• The Commercial St. crosswalk at Valley Street will get a new median to provide a refuge for crossing pedestrians;
• Sidewalks on both sides of the new bridge over the railroad tracks, between Valley Street and the waterfront.

Things we should work on:

• No sidewalk or crosswalk connection between the Fore River waterfront trail (which runs north from the bridge, towards Mercy Hospital) and the new bridge sidewalk (which is on the southern, opposite side of the bridge).
• Likewise, no crosswalk between Barber Foods and the opposite side of Commercial Street. With so many pedestrians headed to work at Barber and other workplaces on St. John Street, this will be a probable jaywalking problem area unless a safe crossing gets built.
  
• Still no word on where the sidewalk will go on the other (South Portland) side of the bridge. Another sidewalk to nowhere?

For the curious, a binder with engineering documents from the proposal is available at PACTS offices on the 4th floor of the AAA building on Marginal Way and Preble Street.