From Robert Whitcomb’s “Digital Diary,’’ in GoLocal24.com

The new pedestrian bridge to go over the Providence River, with its opening scheduled for later this year, is indeed expensive. GoLocal reports, for example, that the project is now estimated to cost $1,470 a square foot – 145 percent more, for example, than the estimated per-square-foot cost to replace the Henderson Bridge (aka “Red Bridge’’), linking Providence’s East Side and East Providence!

But the pedestrian bridge, in downtown Providence (“The Creative Capital’’?), will have aesthetic features (including custom-fabricated steel and a wooden (love it!) decking system) befitting its location (essentially on the campus of the Rhode Island School of Design, perhaps America’s most famous art school). It will not only be a pleasant way to travel between downtown and the East Side/College Hill/Fox Point; it will also be a destination point, where many people will linger on nice days. Sort of a mini-park. It should even lure some tourists (and their restaurant, etc., dollars) to the city. So special attention and added costs seem reasonable.

To read the GoLocal piece, please hit this link.