Industry experts, activists and Metro councilmembers alike have noticed that a new plan to replace the Broadway Viaduct doesn’t look new at all.
“What design? It’s the same road with a few planters thrown down,” says David Kleinfelter, founder of Walk Bike Nashville, an activism organization working to make Nashville safer for pedestrians and bicyclists.
The current Broadway Viaduct opened in 1948 and is nearing the end of its lifespan. But rather than plan to replace it with a more modern structure aligning with an increasingly popular movement away from car-centric transportation, the Tennessee Department of Transportation last week released final renderings of a design extremely reminiscent of the very structure they plan to demolish.
“This is not Nashville's design for this bridge, right?” District 19 Councilmember Freddie O’Connell tells the Scene. “This is being designed by state engineers, and they have so far rejected most of the feedback not just from myself as the representative of the district, but also some of the feedback from our design and architecture community, all of which are bringing phenomenal projects online on both sides of that bridge.”
Kleinfelter and O’Connell aren’t the only ones with objections. The Civic Design Center is a nonprofit organization that works to improve communities “through engagement, education, connection and design.” Since the release of the viaduct design, many CDC members have been vocal about the ways it could be improved to better suit an evolving city.
“You have to have a philosophical conversation about, OK, are we continuing down the pathway of just sticking with the same amount of infrastructure for cars?” says Civic Design Center CEO Gary Gaston. “Or as the city evolves, and we have more people walking and biking and taking scooters and other forms of transportation, do we have to make some decisions that you can't fit everything? How do we transition from this car-centric culture to accommodating the things that people want to see happen?”
The new viaduct will be taking up the same space as the current one, so in order to add space for other forms of transit, Gaston explains that the number of lanes devoted to automobiles would need to decrease.
Data from the past five years has shown a dramatic decrease in traffic over the current Broadway Viaduct, nearly dropping to the threshold of where the Federal Highway Administration typically recommends a road diet. A road diet in its simplest form is the repurposing of road lanes to better suit multimodal transit options, such as bike lanes or bus rapid transit lanes.
Gaston says that at the very least the CDC would like to see bike lanes implemented on the viaduct, but that taking further steps to make the structure more pedestrian-friendly and aesthetically pleasing would be welcomed. He explains that while the planters are a nice touch, they are the bare minimum in providing pedestrians with a safe experience.
Last year Nashville committed to the Vision Zero Plan. As the city grows and our dependence on cars for transportation remains relatively stagnant, automobile-related deaths and injuries have crept up year by year, with 2022 being the deadliest year for pedestrians in Nashville.
“West End is identified as a dangerous corridor,” says O’Connell, citing poor infrastructure as the main reason for the unpleasant and dangerous pedestrian experience. “This bridge design is not going to do anything to increase pedestrian safety, especially with three travel lanes in both directions.”
This all comes as Gov. Bill Lee begins his push for the Transportation Modernization Act, which is referenced in TDOT’s press release for the new viaduct, and puts an emphasis on expanding the number of lanes on state highways.
Preliminary work on the structure is underway, and demolition will begin in February. A full shutdown of the viaduct will take place for eight weeks during the summer as they finish building.
