We spent part of Monday afternoon doing a site visit for an upcoming project we’ve been planning for a while. The EC Row Walkway crosses over the 6 lanes of EC Row and is a pretty incredible view. We took some measurements and did a quick visibility test. We were only up there for about fifteen minutes, but there were a lot of people honking, which makes me suspect this walkway is pretty underutilized. Photos after the jump.
From the street, the ramp up to the walkway doesn’t seem that high. The concrete is finished with groves in it, for traction I assume, as this seems to be built for bikers to cross the expressway. There’s a Catholic high school in the area too, so we’re curious about how many people might use this on a daily basis.
Walking up the ramp was really incredible. You slowly rise above the streetlights and then the retaining wall for the EC Row and the traffic sound gradually pours over.
This is the view of the walkway, looking south. It’s not as wide as I thought it would be.
First we make note of the number of “quadrants,” which totaled 22, though the outermost have diagonal bars across them and are essentially useless.
Then we measured the size of each quadrant and the size of each diamond shape made by the chainlink. Each quadrant is 92″ x 66″ and each diamond is about 2.5″ square.
Josh took down the details, while we tried to figure out how we might best use the space.
I struggled with getting the end of the flagging tape. It’s about the thickness of black garbage bags, and the end of it was glued down.
Josh and I try to figure out how much space we’ll have to cover with the flagging tape, but I think we need to think about this some more, especially while not in the cold.
Michelle stood back on the ramp to try to see how visible the flagging tape will be from a distance.
I tried doubling it up (side by side), as the tape is only about 1.5″ wide. We might even have to triple it.
Zooming in, the tape is fairly visible, though I think we’ll do some more tests at Lebel. The camera doesn’t pick it up as well as your eyes do alone, but we have to keep that in mind for when we document this project.
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you could try using reflective tape, that way it would look insane at night time
I’ve been wondering about that too… my only concern is that, ideally, this project should be easy to be recreated by anyone. The flagging tape we’re using is under $5 for 300′ from Canadian Tire. Not sure how much reflective tape is (or even where to get it for that matter). This project would look amazing to have the reflective tape, we just need to figure out if there’s a place to get it locally.
i was thinking that last night too. : )
Im not sure how much it would be, but you could try Safety Equipment stores around Windsor instead of Canadian tire, you might be able to get more for less or have some shipped in for less. I was thinking Great Lakes Safety.
Concerning the number of viewers you might receive, I know that the high school kids typically run across this in the warmer weather for gym classes. I see them all the time driving to and from school in the warmer months.
[...] table last night. We completed a test with the flagging tape at Lebel (as you can see above) for the EC Row project and continued working on the LED sign. There’s lots of pictures of all the action after the [...]
[...] It’s that time of the week, Broken City Lab office hours on Tuesday, January 27th, at 7pm, LeBel, room 125. Feel free to drop by to contribute, engage, ask questions, and fix this city. We’ll be working through some upcoming projects, plotting the potential for a citywide scavenger hunt, and finalizing details for the EC Row project. [...]