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The General Contractors Association of New York today named the 10 worst bridges in New York City. They’re definitely a shabby lot. But it’s actually a little unfair to present this as a case of city government falling down on the job. The Bloomberg administration has actually been very attentive to maintaining and improving bridges and making sure the old crappy ones don’t fall down. But after Giuliani was more or less negligent on the matter they had a big job and these are some of the spans that are still much in need of TLC. Plans are even in motion to replace the worst the bridge on the list (click through to satisfy your overwhelming curiosity and see what it is).
10. Major Deegan Ramp to 153rd Street/Cromwell Avenue (Southbound)
9. 150 St Over Belt Parkway
[via]
8. Bruckner Blvd viaduct
[via NY GCA]
[via NY GCA]
7. Bruckner Service Road, northbound
6. Major Deegan Expressway @ Sedgewick Ave
[via NY GCA]
5. Major Deegan Xway near Yankee Stadium
[Photo: WCBS]
4. Cross Bronx Expressway over Sheridan Expressway
3. Bronx River Expressway over rail tracks
2. Gowanus Expressway
[via]
1. Koskiousko Bridge
[via -- including some semi-recent news on replacement plans]
.
[via NY GCA]
And an extra special thanks to our close friends at WCBS!
September 30th, 2009 at 8:46 pm
I’m originally from Michigan. Back home, we would consider most of these bridges to be in good repair. Only when the surface is 100 percent pothole patches, would we think about repairing it.
September 30th, 2009 at 9:45 pm
I guess is this only road bridges, but what about the viaduct that carries the F train over the Gowanus Canal? It’s been wrapped in fabric and girded with nets for years to prevent chunks of concrete from raining down on people below.
September 30th, 2009 at 11:46 pm
That last photo is a little scary. How has the bridge not been condemned if it’s in such bad condition?
October 1st, 2009 at 12:45 am
I am from India and knowing that there are such issues in the best of places on earth, is very comforting. We have learnt to live with much more horrible situations, hence you can take some comfort. Yes, the last shot is very scary. But don’t worry, sometimes it does take a lot of deaths to wake inertia laden civic officials from their stupor. Not that I would want anybody to die, but that’s how this age is - people are getting more and more insensitive to important things all around.
October 1st, 2009 at 7:04 am
I’m not certain which and Streetview does not offer a picture, but one of the bridges over 376 E in Pittsburgh has one of the greatest and most disturbing infrastructure kludges I’ve ever seen.
Problem: Chunks of concrete are falling onto the expressway.
Solution: Build another bridge under the current one to shield motorists on the road below. If you’ve seen it, you know how sad looking it is.
October 1st, 2009 at 8:43 am
Hmm, these are all highway bridges built by Bob Moses. Even though he’s been dead for almost thirty years, he still manages to drain everyone’s budgets!
October 1st, 2009 at 9:24 am
Sean,
I think you are referring to the Greenfield bridge that connects the park with Greenfield (and then connects to 376.)
October 1st, 2009 at 10:45 am
Giuliani has not been mayor for 8 years. What on earth are you talking about?
The drain on NYc’s budget comes from massive transit subsidies that prevent both highway maintenance and, ironically, expansion of the transit system itself.
You whiny liberals are awful at math and history.
October 1st, 2009 at 11:50 am
Aside from that last shot, these don’t look too bad. Back when I was living in Winnipeg, ALL of the roads looked like that or worse. I think Americans are spoiled when it comes to road conditions.
October 1st, 2009 at 2:14 pm
You should come a few hundred miles north to Montreal if you wanna see how bad it can get!
http://www2.canada.com/montrealgazette/features/overpass/more.html
October 1st, 2009 at 2:31 pm
I remember reading Moses’ biography. He razed whole neighborhoods and put in expressways. I was too young to grasp the gravity of this at the time. I also remember he never had a license or drove a car.
The same thing was done in West Oakland near where I live. The freeways destroyed what were whole, thriving neighborhoods, in the pursuit of “progress.”
Progress has been too much a technologically cornucopian, growth at all costs religion of absolutism.
The future is local.
October 1st, 2009 at 7:58 pm
Go take a hike Eric F. You are a conservative MORON. We can blame anti-tax and asnti-government CONSERVATISM for the crappy state of our nation’s infrastructure.
New York would instantly grind to a halt if the subway system shut down- it is VITAL to the city’s functioning. All of the transit expansions are greatly needed and have been on the drawing board for YEARS. Every great world city has a massive public transit network- most are better than New York’s.
October 1st, 2009 at 9:15 pm
Yeah, why are these all road bridges? From what I’ve read, the LIRR’s Atlantic Avenue Viaduct is in worse shape than some of these, and some of the subway viaducts are in worse shape than *all* of these.
The Major Deegan should just be torn down south of the Cross-Bronx, along with the useless stub which is the Sheridan Expressway, and the greenspace-invading Bronx River Expressway. I’d say to remove the Cross-Bronx Expressway too, since it’s an absolute blight, but it is such a useful connection….
That would solve at least four of these easily.
October 3rd, 2009 at 7:36 pm
What can ya say? Cities in the North (and Canada) simply have harsher weather conditions, and they take their toll on bridges.
I live in Minneapolis…surely you all can remember what happened here two years ago. Our STAUNCH conservative governor Tim “Asshat” Pawlenty is hellbent on going down in history as “the governor who never raised your taxes.” He’s going to use that when he foolishly runs for President in 2012. Well, he hasn’t raised taxes, and the State of Minnesota is now basically bankrupt, while local taxes have skyrocketed.
The Lafayette Bridge, another important bridge in downtown St. Paul, is very similar to the photos above, and it’s still open. The state has limited funds to do anything about it.
Thanks a lot, conservative ideology. The money to fix America’s infrastructure is out there, but it’s sitting in the bank accounts of the utterly selfish and filthy rich 1% who never see the consequences of poor infrastructure (or anything else caused by their selfish position on taxes).