UPDATE: Jamie Kendrick, the city’s deputy transportation director, responds to The Brew’s suggestion, saying the city did a quick evaluation of a by-pass Fort Avenue bridge and concluded it would not be cost-effective.

The city and CSX Transportation think it’s impossible to keep the Fort Avenue bridge over the railroad tracks open during construction. So they have concocted several convoluted ways to detour around the closed bridge during the nearly one-year construction schedule.

Residents are highly skeptical. They think the Locust Point peninsula will become stranded whenever slow, mile-long freight trains block the alternative routes.

The city and CSX say it is impossible to keep part of the bridge open while rebuilding the rest of it. They say that structurally it won’t work that way. They’re right, but only to a point.

Here’s the way to make it work: Prior to knocking down the existing bridge, build another narrow bridge right next to it. One lane should be enough. Traffic signals can be used to alternate flow between the two directions. It can be about fifteen-feet wide, eleven for the lane and four for a sidewalk.

Then, after the existing bridge is rebuilt, the narrow bridge can be converted to a bikeway and greenway, and become part of a longer greenway from the Inner Harbor to Fort McHenry, as proposed in The Brew two years ago.

This will cost some extra bucks, of course. But perhaps the existing bridge can be rebuilt to be narrower since it will no longer need sidewalks on both sides. It’ll be worth it.