Progress

Back in the day, a cyclist used to be able to ride out Hope St., cross 195 on the scary, old pedestrian bridge to India Point Park, then shoot over the Washington Bridge to the East Bay Bike path. But then the 195 Relocation/Build-me-an-IWay project got under way. The pedestrian bridge got torn down. The bicycle crossing on the Washington Bridge went away. Suddenly it was a huge pain in the ass to ride over to East Providence. Now, with the construction on the Henderson Bridge, it's even worse. Dark days for cyclists, indeed. Dark days.

But maybe things are looking up. Yesterday I checked in on the India Point Pedestrian Bridge on my way home from the farmer's market. I had noticed a couple weeks back that the ornamental cladding had been hung on the fancy, new bridge. There is a texturing pattern and letters that say "India Point Park Bridge" or something to remind speeding (or crawling) motorists that there's an amazing park right nearby. This prompted me to check on the work progress on the bridge. Yesterday I saw that the bridge isn't open yet, but it's definitely coming along. The fencing is up along either side to prevent people from jumping off, throwing stuff at cars, or writing graffitti on the lettering. According to the renderings, there will be planters along either side of the bridge as well, and the soil is mostly in place. According to these photos, the landscaping on the park-side of the bridge is getting close as well. Interesting...

So, perhaps soon we'll at least be able to easily access India Point without the sport of riding down Gano. It's much harder to tell what the progress is on the Washington Bridge section. They don't have a slick, spendy public relations website...