210 basket bridge coming
October 14, 2010 by admin
Filed under Featured, The Latest
The design of the so-called Iconic Freeway Structure (IFS) bridge of the Gold Line Foothill Extension Construction Authority over the eastbound 210 Freeway heading into Arcadia is nearly complete, with only final engineering tweaks to artist Andrew Leicester’s design before work begins on the bridge featuring woven baskets pictured below.
(Further updates on the overall Gold Line Foothill Extension from the Foothill Extension Authority following the photo below.)
Bridge to be built over eastbound 210 Freeway heading into Arcadia.
Following the August release of the Phase 2A (Pasadena to Azusa) Request for Proposals for Design-Build-Finance services (to construction the track, stations, a 25-acre Maintenance and Operations Facility, crossings, bridges, utilities and more), the three short listed teams are hard at work preparing proposals. Proposals for the $450+ million project are due in late January, and an award is anticipated for April. This schedule keeps us on track for a late 2014 project completion.
IFS design-build team Skanska USA/AECOM is spending the next several months finalizing designs for the 584-foot bridge over the eastbound lanes of the I-210 freeway. They are currently working with the California Department of Transportation (CALTRANS) to get the necessary permits to conduct some additional geologic testing at the IFS site location, which will help finalize the design (testing will take place in October).
Between now and April, when major construction is scheduled to begin on the bridge, AECOM (the designers) will work to turn the artist’s concept into an engineering reality.
Meanwhile, the Phase 2B environmental process is getting started. The consulting team, led by Parsons Brinckerhoff, is initiating work with the cities along the Phase 2B corridor, and will begin the public involvement process early in 2011. The Construction Authority will be preparing an Environmental Impact Report/Study (per CEQA/NEPA guidelines) for this 12.5-mile extension – evaluating the environmental impacts of the project and identifying ways to mitigate those impacts when feasible.
And finally, Construction Authority staff has been working around the clock to update the decade-old Authority website. Look for a revamped www.foothillextension.org website in late October.
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Hideous. They couldn’t do anything better then 2 grenades holding up whatever???
The “iconic bridge” has become very clumsey looking, and the stark white is not welcoming. The bridge always was somewhat strange, but the newer rendering version seems to have morphed into a very unsophisticated heavy structure.It is almost depressing.
I don’t understand what baskets have to do with the area, what is the significance? It seems an inappropriate design for the 210 and the Pasadena, Arcadia area. If it is meant to refer to the native american people that once lived here, if fails. Beth I agree, heavy and unsophisticated, not how I want to think of the Gold line.
Horrid. The structute is downright ugly. Find someone (architect) with some creative thought and try again.
Basket case! Kill the Gold Lined Pockets Authority & CalTrans.
I agree that the bridge is a bit too much. Unfortunately, in an effort to honor the local Indian tribe, the Tongva, the designer relied upon materials having to do with a tribe which had nothing to do with this area, the Chumash.
This is what you get with a Minnesota-based design group which gets it ideas from the internet instead of from a reliable source. (Was there no California-based firm or artist available?)
Forget the phony design features, let us have just a plain, less expensive, functional bridge. When driving underneath it on the freeway, no one will have time to notice it anyway.
I say stick to function before form (and designer ego). If there is extra money in the project for this kind of silliness, it would be better applied toward housing and feeding the poor, of which the SGV has no shortage.
I also agree that the bridge has morphed into a massive oversized ugly structure. Just give the job to CalTrans. They removed to old bridge and they do know how to build efficient freeway bridges. I bet that they could build a simple clean looking bridge that would cost a whole lot less and do the job right.
Concrete baskets??? really??? Who not a nice long smooth sweeping bridge that is both simple and efficient??? This design was way too over-thought… =/
I am all for the extension but that bridge is too much…it is just a bridge…no need for the grenades!
Is it too late???
There is no relationship between the forms. The forms are inappropriate for those materials. Like Jerry noted, the design concept is irrelevant to the project. This thing is ugly in so many ways.