Best Bridge Over Troubled Water

James D. Pfluger, FAIA, Bridge

When the foot bridge over Town Lake officially opened on June 16, joggers, bicyclists, hikers, and drivers breathed a collective sigh of relief as non-combustion traffic was routed away from the narrow sidewalks of the old Lamar bridge - thankful that pedestrians and bicyclists no longer have to risk their lives crossing Town Lake alongside SUVs and their attendant cell phones, and impressed that we got a new bridge with its own personality, not just a sidewalk strapped to the old one. Named for an architect who helped design the Town Lake hike-and-bike trail, the Pfluger pedestrian bridge took several years and too many fatal accidents for the city to approve construction, but once they committed to the $8 million project it took contractors three months to get it up and open, heralding a new era of transportation planning for Austin.