What About Trucks?

'Streetsblog' shows off corner snow-bergs as traffic calming measures without even mentioning trucks or buses...

 http://www.streetsblog.org/2014/02/14/sneckdowns-4-aint-snow-stoppin-us-now/#disqus_thread

Remember how advocates against widening roads used to say that the extra capacity was only needed at intersections?

This is yet another example of how the class of people likeliest to fund transportation subversive endeavors as 'Streetsblog' are hopelessly out of touch with what happens far away from the lower 2/3rds of Manhattan's Central Park, with zero appreciation of how the food that stocks their local markets arrives- by roads and cars.

They are so anti road and anti car that they even blow the opportunity for a Hudson River freight rail crossing with the configuration of the Tappan Zee Bridge.

So how could we expect the sort of ilk that fund "Streetsblog' to ever ask the perspective of say truckdrivers?

For A Cast Iron Friendly Lower Manhattan Expressway

A proper - Cast Iron' friendly Lower Manhattan Expressway (LME)

All of the past proposals for a Lower Manhattan [Vehicular] Expressway have objections making them politically unpopular.

 

 

 

 http://www.nycroads.com/roads/lower-manhattan/

Above is the version from the early 1960s.  2 of 3 of its 'legs' - respectively its approaches to the Holland Tunnel and the Manhattan Bridge are elevated.  However, much of the approach to the Williamsburg Bridge is open depressed, only in need of a roof to become tunnels. Of this, a short -- 80 foot long and wide segment beneath the Chrystie avenue rail transit subway station was actually built in 1962.  It was done as part of the project constructing the rail transit station directly atop.

Early versions had all 3 'legs' including that to the Williamsburg as elevated.

 http://www.nycroads.com/roads/lower-manhattan/

Earlier Version with Elevated Approaches including to Williamsburg Bridge

Different versions of the LME's Holland Tunnel approach featured an elevated design within a line of new buildings.

 

This LME would have displaced the buildings along the northern side of Broome Street.

Later 1960s versions meanwhile did go to a nearly entirely underground configuration, though as a cut and cover tunnel that would still have displaced the row of buildings along the north side of Broome Street.   By July 1969, New York Mayor Lindsey would declare the LME and the entire list of other planned yet to be built vehicular expressways "dead for all time".  That would be despite his promotion of underground design solutions for such proposed links as the LME and the Cross Brooklyn Expressway

Still there would be a successive effort to promote the LME after 1969.

However its final' versions, at least of those solicited by serious money as the Ford Foundation, was something arguably designed to further de-popularize the LME: the Paul Rudolph design.  That is the design with its 'blade-runner' extreme accompanying building architecture meant to distract from the short-comings of this particular highway design, with vast open -- yes, uncovered -- trenches with space wasting sloped walls rather than say an extra lane per direction, by overwhelming us so that we hopefully forget that this version, like every verion AFAIAA ever proposed, all would have torn a swath through historic SoHo by displacing all those buildings along the north side of Broome Street.

Though much of the opposition to the Expressway was its displacement of the highly desirable Cast Iron buildings, not even the Ford Foundation funded design exercises achieved sparing such buildings.

Western Portion LME - Paul Rudolph design

Yet there were also contemporaneous covered with new yet not radical  building versions.  One such proposal exists of an isometric framed watercolor illustration showing the eastern tunnel portal of an underground LME at about Essex Street, with a cut and cover demolish and replace the buildings atop.  Such is much like what we see along and near the Houstan Street area that were demolished and replaced with new buildings, except of course with the greater setback from the street.

 Cut and Cover LME Williamsburg Bridge Approach

That version shows it connecting with elevated segments.  None of the buildings that would be displaced by this Williamsburg Bridge approach 'leg' are 'Cast Iron', even though along the north side of Broome Street, even a block or so west of the 80x80 foot segment of the freeway constructed in 1962 beneath the subway station beneath Chrystie Street.  However this design still had the other LME segments as elevated designs, with the approach to the Holland Tunnel also with new buildings atop, but alas displacing the historic cast Iron buildings along the north side of Broome Street.

So to a take the LME design process further in accomplish that, pair this eastern cut and cover segment with a western segment as a 2 level tunnel directly beneath Broome Street and its sidewalks, from about the Bowery to West Broadway and then turning beneath Watts Street, with the connections to an expanded Holland Tunnel with added outboard tubes.

In lieu of the elevated segment to the Manhattan Bridge, it may be preferable to instead construct a secondary tunneled LME segment beneath Canal Street, perhaps with a new tunnel continuing beneath the East River.

Austin Texas 'Cut & Cap

https://www.cnu.org/cnu-salons/2013/07/highways-boulevards-blog-austins-i-35-%E2%80%9Ccut-and-cap%E2%80%9D-approach

http://reconnectaustin.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/handout2.jpg

Disconnect With Logic- 4Ever Constrained to 1927 & 1957

Manhattan's Holland & Lincoln Tunnels

That was the year that Charles Lindberg first flew non-stop trans Atlantic. And the year of the completion and the opening of the twin tube Holland Tunnel.

The Holland Tunnel is Manhattan's sole vehicular tunnel directly to New Jersey south of the Lincoln Tunnel.

It was opened with a single twin tube, each with 2 lanes, meaning 4 lanes total.

The Lincoln Tunnel is Manhattan's sole vehicular crossing of the Hudson River between the Holland Tunnel to the south and the George Washington Bridge to the north.

It was open in successive stages with a design ultimately accommodating 4 tubes each with 2 full 12 foot wide lanes, with the first tube in 1937, and the 2nd by 1945, and the 3rd completed by 1957, together with a short mini freeway approach in Manhattan to West 30th Street.

What can be the perpetual reason-excuse for an utter lack of planning for any such further capacity additions?  This can be said about vehicular traffic into and through Manhattan, and about rail freight across the Hudson river any closer than Sedkirk, N.Y. next to I-90, some 140 miles or so to the north.

The existing delays and demand would merit expanding both to at least 8 lanes, with the construction of the 4th tube of the Lincoln Tunnel, and a multi stage project adding a multiple set of under-river least a set of additional tubes in each direction for the Holland Tunnel, and perhaps a parallel set somewhat to the north connecting to say Houstan and or 14th Streets.

The authorities collect a standard toll from these existing crossings into Manhattan at $13.50, with a mere 5% going towards their maintenance, being siphoned away.   Social and environmental concerns point towards such a sensible agenda of Cross-Hudson road capacity additions, along with a re-assessment of the failure to plan for the undeniable 'desire' lines between these tunnels and their comparable East River crossings, regarding the logical cross town land tunnels.

Planning authorities need to address the need for such  sort of tunneled land approaches- aka a Cast Iron District friendly Canal Road Delancy Street Vehicular Tunnel ultimately connecting to the Williamsburg Bridge, plus a set under such streets as 29th and 30th Streets to connect with a Midtown tunnel with at least a 3rd tube bringing it up to 6 lanes total.

Strange is not it that we heard mere lip service by the planning authorities to improve evacuation capacity.