It is evident Peoria is a city with a high population of those who ride bikes; whether it be for transportation, leisure, or for physical activity. The only problem with this hobby in Peoria is safety. How safe is it to ride a bicycle on one of Peorias busy roads? Recently, a young boy was struck and killed by a vehicle while riding his bike on one of the more busy streets of Peoria. Nicholas Stoffer, traffic engineer for the city of Peoria, states We want people to ride their bikes wherever they can. (Peoria Journal Star).

There is this preconceived notion that everyone in America can afford a vehicle but this is not true. This project was about putting the people of Peoria first, and a start to making affordable transportation for everyone. In March, the city manager and director of public works hired Alta Planning and Design, a multi-modal transportation firm that has designed bike plans for the cities of Seattle, Memphis and Chicago. The bridge of Knoxville is just a start. Alta has a master bike plan that they will be working on for the city of Peoria. The goal is to connect the people of Peoria in a positive way and help those who use bikes on a regular basis.

One challenge is connecting Peoria to East Peoria. There is no real way to conveniently bike over the Illinois River. With the upcoming work on Mclugage Bridge, there plan is to engineer a bikeway in the old bridge and connect the two cities. The overall goal of this project is to make Peoria a safer city to live in. With the help of the companies, the bridge over busy Knoxville Avenue was able to be completed and is one step closer to having a safer environment for biking in Peoria.

This project was specified to be hot-dip galvanized for the corrosive protective use of the zinc coating. The caging surrounding the bridge along with the hand rail and bottom frame were all galvanized. The reason the engineer specified the HDG of this section was for its look and longevity. It is important for the city to provide citizens with safe material to touch and therefore paint was not a good option because it does not form a cathodic coating with the steel. The HDG handrail and caging of this bridge will allow for a longer lifespan, therefore the city will not have to pay for the upkeep of this part of the bridge. The cost efficiency of having the inner part of this bridge galvanized will save the city money in the long run. this all played a big role in the specification of HDG over paint in this section of the bridge.