Hey structural or construction guys…is a precast deck subject to faster degradation? The deck at Wake Med has portions pulling away from each other. With exposed steel fasteners it seems likely. Also since they are often wrapped, will it be a little or a lot more difficult to address any repairs down the road? Again, the Wake Med one was pinned back together but the heave is evident bit a hidden deck is captive. Tinker toy decks are so new, there can’t be much field evidence on their durability. Just a bit concerning with so many of them going up and the one I saw popping apart.
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Quality of workmanship and regular maintenance is a much bigger factor than precast vs cast-in-place. Some precast decks seem to do much better over time due to high quality control of rebar placement taking place at the plant. However, a poorly done topping slab can easily negate that benefit after 15 years or so when excessive water starts getting through the cracks. Cardinal Deck at UNC hospital for example, the north half of it is precast and was built in the 70’s. Most of the components are in good shape, with the exception of the topping slab which is causing lots of problems, and other cast-in-place components around the perimeter where the reinforcing steel was placed too close to the edges. (Any steel in concrete needs an adequate thickness of concrete material between it and any exposure to moisture to provide a safeguard against corrosion)
On the other hand, cast-in-place deck have advantages such as design flexibility and the option to use post-tensioned reinforcing. They can last longer than precast decks, but only if the quality control and workmanship of the rebar placement is very high.
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When you look at the aerial view of the Smokey Hollow project, you realize how much it extends the Glenwood entertainment and residential district.
Johnson and W. North streets directly connect the areas, crossing over the train tracks. Now all those residents can easily walk to and all the retail in Phase 2 and the Publix in the Phase 1 area.
And all the great Glenwood amenities are a quick walk from the 680+ Smokey Hollow residential units.
This should be the coolest part of town with all this synergy!
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Agreed. Not only will Smoky Hollow extend Glenwood South, it will connect it to the existing and future development to the east of Capital Blvd. At this point, it immediately engages The Cotton Mill. If Zimmer’s project goes foward, it connects that too. From there, it’s not a huge jump to all of the upcoming development at Seaboard.
Now let’s look at the area north of Smoky Hollow. The future Devereux Meadow park will pull activity northward in union with development that will move up West St. toward Wade.
Smoky Hollow also influences and ties to the south. Obviously, The West condo is immediately engaged in way that is transformational for the experience of living there. Just beyond that, and across the tracks, there are very small jumps to existing and future development that goes all the way through the Warehouse District.
SH is truly a transformational project for DT Raleigh. I don’t think that we can overestimate its future impact as long as the city, county and metro continue to rapidly grow.
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Also throw in the completion of Capital blvd improvements with the greenway leading into downtown that will bring people from other parts of the city on foot or bike.
I think once you combine that with Peace and Publix opening, and it will have the same overnight transformation the Warehouse district experienced with the opening of those three new places(Union Station, Dillon, and Morgan St food hall).
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But, is the pedestrian flow to Devereux Meadow going to be at grade, or with an overhead crosswalk?
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…or, perhaps, with a tunnel?
At grade. Pretty giant median will make it fairly pedestrian friendly. The tunnel has the water in it.
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Catapult!!!
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splat 
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Trebuchets are demonstrably better.
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I believe the CC put $$ in fancifying the new automobile bridges, when they could have put that $ for pedestrian/bike greenway overpass over Peace. Auto-centric Council needs an update.
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Hey, if we’re getting a new bridge, might as well make it look nice. I look forward to the metal sculptures that will adorn the new bridge! Definitely still want to see a grand, well designed pedestrian bridge over Capital to bridge West St/ Five Points neighborhoods to Seaboard/Mordecai hoods someday, though.
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Attractive bridge with LED accent lights!!
(But, that looks like a long distance to traverse by foot. It may be different in the final plan execution. Will have to try it myself when it’s done)
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I agree, it does seem like a lot of money spent, but I think the end result will look really nice, especially the Wade Ave bridge driving into downtown. As someone else mentioned I believe this will eluminate at night with LEDs.
A greenway bridge would be really nice, but might be difficult to place with all the construction still to come. I’m still in complete shock every time I drive by this pedestrian bridge over 440. The fact it got enough funding in general is amazing.
This would get 4 times the foot traffic downtown.
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I need to scrounge around a bit, but the only footbridge in the area I recall seeing was to bridge over from Seaboard Station to Devereux Meadow. But, that was before Smoky Hollow came into the picture.
Update: Found it…
From ‘Capital Boulevard Corridor Study’ Page 68.
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I could be wrong but I’m going to guess that the NCMA had something to do with that bridge. The NCMA being a statewide institution, they probably have the connections to leverage approvals of something like this going over I-440 as a way to support their “museum in a park” dynamic. A greenway connection is perfect and I’m glad we have that.
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No fancy starchitect. Just the wizards at the NCDOT’s Bridge division. Got it done without being too expensive. Really paid off.
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That would make a lot more sense than the city or donors funding that.