Pfluger Pedestrian Bridge

James D. Pfluger Pedestrian and Bicycle Bridge
The bridge viewed from the southwest, from the nearby Lamar Boulevard Bridge
Coordinates	30°15′54″N 97°45′22″W / 30.265°N 97.756°W / 30.265; -97.756
Carries	Pedestrians and bicycles
Crosses	Lady Bird Lake (Colorado River)
Locale	Austin, Texas, United States
Owner	City of Austin
Characteristics
Design	Double curve deck, helix ramp, curved connectors, cast-in-place reinforced concrete piers
Material	Weathering steel, reinforced concrete
Total length	Maximum 812 feet (247 m)
Width	Varies from 23 feet (7.0 m) to 42 feet (13 m)
History
Architect	Kinney & Associates, Carter Design Associates
Construction begin	15 May 2000
Opened	16 June 2001 (2001-06-16)
James D. Pfluger Pedestrian and Bicycle Bridge Location in Texas

The James D. Pfluger Pedestrian and Bicycle Bridge is a pedestrian bridge spanning Lady Bird Lake in downtown Austin, Texas. Opened in 2001, the bridge connects the north and south sides of the Lady Bird Lake Hike and Bike Trail and features an unusual "double curve" design. The bridge runs parallel to the Lamar Boulevard Bridge, which carries road traffic across the lake roughly 200 feet (61 m) to the west.

The Lamar Boulevard Bridge is one of the main routes across Lady Bird Lake in downtown Austin, but it offers no dedicated bicycle lanes and only narrow sidewalks separated from the street by low curbs. As the growth of Austin in the 1980s sent ever-increasing traffic across the bridge, near misses between vehicles, cyclists and pedestrians became increasingly common. In 1991, a drunk driver hit and killed a cyclist on the bridge. By the mid-1990s concerns about the safety of the crossing prompted the city to raise funds through a municipal bond issuance and a federal matching funds grant to widen the Lamar bridge and improve its safety design.

Early in the design process, however, the Texas Historical Commission indicated that the overall design of the existing bridge could not be changed, since it had been designated as an historic structure. Community members in stakeholder meetings also generally opposed adding new traffic lanes to the bridge. Instead, in March 1998 city council directed the engineering contractor to explore the possibility of building a separate bridge for pedestrian use.

A design workshop in May 1998 produced, among others, a design for a bridge with a "double curve" deck connecting the trails on the north and south shores along natural "paths of travel," giving the bridge an hourglass shape and curved connectors. This design was ultimately selected by city council, and construction began in May 2000; the bridge was officially opened to pedestrian and cyclist traffic in June 2001, whereupon it was named for James D. Pfluger, a notable Austin-area architect who designed parts of the city's hike and bike trail system.

The original design of the bridge had called for a long northwestern ramp to stretch over Cesar Chavez Street and connect to the Lance Armstrong Bikeway and downtown, but budget limitations led to the elimination of that section from the original construction in 2000–2001. In 2010, however, city council approved funding for the completion of that final section of the bridge. Construction on the new connector began on 15 March 2010 and was completed on 1 March 2011.