HUMPBACK BRIDGE
ON MINUTEMAN BIKEWAY

Location F in aerial photo

The arched bridge over Alewife Brook was constructed in the mid-1990s as part of the Minuteman Bikeway extension to Alewife Station.

Jack Johnson of the Arlington Bikeway Committee says of this bridge,

Because the Route 2 highway ramp bridge was built before the Minuteman Bikeway, the arched wooden bridge was built alongside the highway ramp when the bikeway was formally extended to Alewife Station in 1998. The bridges span the Little River, which flows into the Alewife Brook.

The bikeway bridge is rather narrow, and the railings are not set back -- a problem worsened by the bollards placed inside the ends of the guardrails -- bollards which are hardly necessary, as motor vehicles are prevented from getting to this point by other barriers. There is also no good reason for the bollards be within the length of the railings where bicyclists have less room to get around them. Johnson also says:

Your criticisms of this bridge are valid, but most everyone is relieved not to have ride on the more narrow sidewalk w/killer guardrails next on the highway ramp.

Johnson suggests that a solution might be to remove the bollards for reuse elsewhere and to paint a center stripe down the middle of the bridge. I am in complete agreement with all of Johnson's comments.