Bridges
Welcome to the Bridges Channel, a special feature that provides the user an in-depth look at the bridge industry. This section offers several areas to explore: product spotlights, article archives, related case studies, related video and product/supplier contact list.
The American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) recently published the second edition of its Manual for Bridge Element Inspection (MBEI) reference guide.
The new reference guide replaces two current AASHTO publications, including the first edition of the MBEI,...
Merchants Bridge crosses the Mississippi River, connecting St. Louis, Mo., to Venice, Ill. The bridge was initially constructed in the late 1800s and is the oldest rail structure crossing the Mississippi River. Among the many maintenance activities throughout the 1900s, the original timber trestles...
CEMEX supplies largest bridge ever in Los Angeles
March 28, 2019—CEMEX USA announced it is providing concrete, including a specialized self-consolidating mix, along with thousands of tons of aggregates for the largest bridge project in the history of Los Angeles, Calif.—the replacement of the...
Image: ARTBA
The American Road & Transportation Builders Association (ARTBA) analysis of the recently released U.S. DOT 2018 National Bridge Inventory (NBI) database reveals that 47,052 of U.S. bridges are classified as structurally deficient and in poor condition.
Vehicles of all kinds cross these...
Image: Tennessee DOT via Twitter
Crews are continuing to work on emergency repairs today after a large chunk of concrete railing fell off an I-75 North bridge onto the I-24 westbound ramp below in Chattanooga, Tenn., late Monday morning, injuring one person.
A section of I-75 was closed down to traffic after the collapse, near...
The Smith Avenue Bridge, known as the High Bridge, spanning the Mississippi River in St. Paul, Minn., consists of three continuous tied steel arch main spans with steel multi-girder approach spans.
Originally constructed in 1987, the main spans consist of a 502-ft full arch (Span 4) and two half...
Joliet, Ill., was at one time a true blue-collar city. Steel fabrication echoed through the streets of this river dwelling … a constant buzz was in the air.
Today that collar is badly faded and has a couple of noticeable stains on it, one being the I-80 bridge over the Des Plaines River,...
The Cascade Mountain Range runs from Northern California into British Columbia, Canada, dividing the state of Washington in two.
Western Washington is home to the lush greenery and moody skies of Puget Sound, including the surging Seattle metropolitan area—mocha lattes and Microsoft; shipyards...
By a vote of 95 to one, the U.S. Senate confirmed Nicole Nason to lead the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) on March 28.
Nominated by President Trump on Jan. 3 as the next FHWA administrator, Nason emphasized in her confirmation testimony that she plans to pay particular attention to...
Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar, who is making a run as a Democratic presidential candidate for the 2020 race, today released a trillion-dollar proposal to help rebuild the nation's roads, bridges and other infrastructure projects.
According to the details of the plan from her campaign, Klobuchar...
Image: Mississippi DOT
Under the authority of Gov. Phil Bryant’s April 2018 emergency bridge closure proclamation, the Mississippi DOT (MDOT) today was directed to begin immediately closing at least 34 local bridges.
“If these bridges remain open, it will not only present a safety hazard to the traveling public but...
A $10.3 million project in Devon, U.K., necessitated the reconstruction of a half-mile single-lane road designed to reduce congestion and support economic development in the area. The approved route required a significant amount of material (nearly 131,000 cu yd) on adjacent slopes to be excavated...
Highway construction is always a significant undertaking, but some projects come with more backstory than others. Take the West Waukesha Bypass in Waukesha, Wis., which has been in discussion since at least the 1970s. Designed to provide a link around the city by connecting I-94 and S.R. 59, the...
Image: Amtrak
The Federal Transit Administration (FTA) rated the Hudson River rail tunnel project between New York and New Jersey with a medium-low grade in its most recently released ratings for infrastructure projects around the country.
According to the Associated Press, this is the same rating the agency...
The Illinois DOT (IDOT) must find a safe route for trucks traveling in the state of Illinois and issue an oversize/overweight (OS/OW) permit for trucks carrying large loads. With slow, manual permitting processes, IDOT sought to update and automate its permitting system. IDOT implemented the...
Image: Justin Billau [CC BY-SA 2.0] via Wikimedia Commons
Researchers in the state of Michigan are planning to install up to 2,000 infrastructure sensors on the Mackinac Bridge in order to explore the logistics of a large-scale deployment and provide useful monitoring data to the Mackinac Bridge Authority (MBA).
According to a press release from the...
The Bear Cut Bridge and West Bridges is part of the Rickenbacker Causeway that connects Key Biscayne and Miami in Florida. The Rickenbacker Causeway is named after Eddie Rickenbacker, a WWI vet and founder of Eastern Air Lines. The original work on the bridges began in 1926, and in 1947 it was...
Image: Cacophony [CC BY-SA 2.5] via Wikimedia Commons
The Washington State Senate Transportation Committee recently passed a $15 billion transportation package that includes $450 million to replace the I-5 bridge over the Columbia River.
The project has been a priority for lawmakers in Clark County, who have been working to collaborate with the...
Nearly a year after the Florida International University (FIU) pedestrian bridge collapsed, Magnum Construction Management (MCM), the Miami-based contractor hired to install the bridge, has filed for bankruptcy.
MCM, formerly known as Munilla Construction Management, submitted its Chapter 11...
Logo Images: Trifonenko Ivan / SkyLine / stock.adobe.com
In a fully loaded Infrastructure Insider, we go over the recent bridge troubles in Chicago and the Chicagoland area. Associate Editor Tim Bruns talked with the Chicago DOT after bridge cracking was discovered on Lake Shore Drive (5:45). The I-80 bridge in Joliet also is in trouble. We talked to...
