August 14, 2002
NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Four cranes will lift two sections of a nearly 100-foot span of steel over 21st Avenue beginning at midnight Saturday as Vanderbilt creates an aerial link between its central campus and the historic Peabody College area.
A section of 21st Avenue from Scarritt Place to Garland Avenue will be closed from midnight until 6 a.m. Sunday while the two main sections of the pedestrian bridge are put into place.
Additional sections will be assembled on site in the coming weeks. The sections, fabricated at the Steadfast Bridges facility in Fort Payne, Ala., are being shipped by truck to Nashville for assembly.
When completed in December, the bridge will cross 21st Avenue near the Edgehill Avenue intersection, connecting the existing sidewalk at Peabody’s Magnolia Circle to the second-floor, open-air terrace of the Biosciences/Medical Research Building III facility. It will end on the walk behind the Nursing School’s Godchaux Hall near Library Lawn.
Designed by Boston-based William Wilson Associated Architects, the project will be about 400 feet in length with only a portion elevated. In addition to the steel span, the project will include brick columns and iron railings similar to the corner gateways to campus on 21st, Blakemore and West End avenues.
The $1.9 million project is designed to enhance safety, shorten travel time and allow barrier-free access for pedestrians to both sides of the campus. A reduction in the number of pedestrians crossing the heavily traveled 21st Avenue is also expected to help with vehicle traffic flow.
Media contact: Elizabeth Latt, 615-322-NEWS
elizabeth.p.latt@vanderbilt.edu