Saving the Nelson Street Bridge

Amid the well-documented last minute clamoring to finalize the final transit project list, the quixotic campaign to save the Nelson Street Bridge in Castleberry Hill has not gotten much play. Built in 1906, the Nelson Street is a nice-enough looking concrete tee beam bridge that was once part of a vast system of railroad viaducts looping train traffic through the city. Today it is closed to traffic, deemed 'structurally deficient' with a sufficiency rating of just 31.6 out of 100, and slated to be demolished when the Mitchell Street Bridge replacement project is completed. Castleberry Hill residents are pushing Mayor Reed to include the bridge on the final TIA project list, but given the quibbling over limited dollars for larger-scale projects that affect significant segments of the metro population, it seems unlikely. [castleberryhill.org]