INDIANAPOLIS — The re-opening of the Dandy Trail Bridge was long-awaited, and now that it's here one of the drivers who uses it to cross Eagle Creek is already flagging what he calls a major design flaw.
"Well you've got this bridge railing, protecting the pathway for the people who may be walking along the bridge, but the way they've structured it, this is a new bridge that just opened last week. You now have a zig zag here in the road that didn't used to be there," Wood said.
Bruce Wood says the guardrail that is is supposed to protect drivers is the very obstacle that might hurt them, especially when the road is icy.
"It's a negative gradient, downhill slide [edit] but as you're coming down through here you lose traction right about the time you go through the light and when you do without traction you're not able to control you car like normal and you're going to go right into this guardrail," Wood said.
In a statement a Department of Public Works spokesman Ben Easley told RTV6, "It sounds like this is a case of drivers needing to re-learn a new alignment on a route they’ve taken many times before. This is the only complaint of this kind we’ve heard; most west-siders are overjoyed with the reopened bridge. The project complies with all INDOT and federal design standards. Reflective striping leads motorists smoothly from the approach onto the bridge, and reflective signage alerts drivers to the bridge railing. We advise drivers to watch closely for striping and signage as they re-learn once familiar traffic patterns."
Wood is hoping that answer is good enough when his fear becomes a reality. "That sounds like politically correct jargon so that no one has to bare the burden of having this repaired. I'm just going to have to say I told you so, why didn't you do something about it. I just hope someone isn't injured or worse even killed because this is an accident waiting to happen," Wood said.
