Wilson Creek Bridge

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Wilson Creek Bridge

Wilson creek bridge.jpeg

Wilson Creek Bridge, looking northeast
Coordinates 37°10′26.004″N80°22′29.388″W / 37.17389000°N 80.37483000°W / 37.17389000; -80.37483000
Carries Virginia Smart Road
Crosses Wilson Creek, a tributary of the North Fork of the Roanoke River; County Route 723 (Ellett Road), part of U.S. Bicycle Route 76 and the TransAmerica Bicycle Trail
Locale Montgomery County, Virginia
Maintained by Virginia Tech Transportation Institute
Characteristics
Design Cast-in-place cantilever box girder
Total length 1,985 feet (605 m)
Width 40 feet (12 m), 2 lanes
Longest span 472 feet (144 m)
Clearance below 175 feet (53 m)
History
Opened May 30, 2001

The Wilson Creek Bridge (also known as the Smart Road Bridge) is the second tallest bridge in Virginia at 175 feet (53 m) tall, the tallest being the US-460 Corridor Q bridge over Grassy Creek and Virginia State Route 610 between Pike County and Buchanan County at 225 feet (69 m) tall. [1]

Virginia State of the United States of America

Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Southeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States located between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth are shaped by the Blue Ridge Mountains and the Chesapeake Bay, which provide habitat for much of its flora and fauna. The capital of the Commonwealth is Richmond; Virginia Beach is the most populous city, and Fairfax County is the most populous political subdivision. The Commonwealth's estimated population as of 2018 is over 8.5 million.

Corridor Q is a highway in the U.S. states of Kentucky, Virginia, and West Virginia. It is part of the Appalachian Development Highway System and U.S. Route 460. Corridor Q runs from Corridor B near Pikeville, Kentucky easterly to Interstate 81 in Christiansburg, Virginia.

Pike County, Kentucky County in the United States

Pike County is a county located in the U.S. state of Kentucky. As of the 2010 census, the population was 65,024. Its county seat is Pikeville. The county was founded in 1821.

Contents

The Wilson Creek Bridge is located in Montgomery County and was built as part of the Virginia Smart Road project. It is a cast-in-place cantilever box girder bridge and extends for 1,985 feet (605 m) with three spans of 472 feet (144 m) and two spans of 283 feet (86 m).

Montgomery County, Virginia County in the United States

Montgomery County is a county located in the Valley and Ridge area of the U.S. state of Virginia. As population in the area increased, Montgomery County was formed in 1777 from Fincastle County, which in turn had been taken from Botetourt County. As of the 2010 census, the population was 94,392. Its county seat is Christiansburg.

The Virginia Smart Road, also known as simply the Smart Road or Smart Highway, is a short, limited access road in Montgomery County, Virginia, used for the testing of pavement technologies and as a proving ground for new transportation technologies. The Smart Road is currently a 2.2-mile (3.5 km) stretch of road with turn-around loops at either end. Eventually, the road will be extended to a total of 5.7 miles (9.2 km), which will directly connect U.S. Route 460 in Blacksburg to Interstate 81 with an interchange near mile marker 121; however, there is no set time frame for completion. The Wilson Creek Bridge was built for the Smart Road and, at 175 feet (53 m) tall, is the second tallest bridge in Virginia. The road and bridge are operated and maintained by the Virginia Department of Transportation. It is also part of the Proposed Interstate 73 Corridor.

Cantilever bridge bridge built using cantilevers

A cantilever bridge is a bridge built using cantilevers, structures that project horizontally into space, supported on only one end. For small footbridges, the cantilevers may be simple beams; however, large cantilever bridges designed to handle road or rail traffic use trusses built from structural steel, or box girders built from prestressed concrete. The steel truss cantilever bridge was a major engineering breakthrough when first put into practice, as it can span distances of over 1,500 feet (460 m), and can be more easily constructed at difficult crossings by virtue of using little or no falsework.

Construction

Construction began in August 1998. The bridge was designed by Florida-based Figg Engineering Group and built by PCL Civil Constructors Inc., a subsidiary of PCL Constructors Inc. at a cost of US$17.4 million. The bridge design is the same genre as the Natchez Trace Parkway Bridge. The bridge is composed of four double-tapered piers with stone inlay, two conventional abutments, and 100 cast-in-place segments. After review of the bridge design by the construction firm, the segments were changed from 4.5 m to 5 m segments, deleting 35 segments from the critical path of construction. The bridge was completed on May 30, 2001.

Florida State of the United States of America

Florida is the southernmost contiguous state in the United States. The state is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, and to the south by the Straits of Florida. Florida is the 22nd-most extensive, the 3rd-most populous, and the 8th-most densely populated of the U.S. states. Jacksonville is the most populous municipality in the state and the largest city by area in the contiguous United States. The Miami metropolitan area is Florida's most populous urban area. Tallahassee is the state's capital.

PCL Construction

The PCL family of companies is a group of independent general contracting construction companies.

Natchez Trace Parkway Bridge

The Natchez Trace Parkway Bridge is a concrete double arch bridge located in Williamson County, Tennessee, 14 km (8.7 mi) from the northern terminus of the Natchez Trace Parkway. It is 479.1 m (1,572 ft) long and carries the two-lane Natchez Trace Parkway 44.2 m (145 ft) over State Route 96 and a heavily wooded valley.

The cast-in-place structure consists of 9,647 cubic yards (7,376 m3) of concrete, 1,565,321 pounds (710,018 kg) of reinforcing steel, and 780,900 pounds (354,210 kg) of steel cables.

Awards

In 2002, the bridge received an honorable mention in the Federal Highway Administration's Excellence in Highway Design Awards, Category 3A: Major Highway Structures Over $10 Million. The bridge also received an award that year from the Concrete Reinforced Steel Institute, the only 2002 award-winner east of the Mississippi River.

Federal Highway Administration government agency

The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) is a division of the United States Department of Transportation that specializes in highway transportation. The agency's major activities are grouped into two programs, the Federal-aid Highway Program and the Federal Lands Highway Program. Its role had previously been performed by the Office of Road Inquiry, Office of Public Roads and the Bureau of Public Roads.

Mississippi River largest river system in North America

The Mississippi River is the second-longest river and chief river of the second-largest drainage system on the North American continent, second only to the Hudson Bay drainage system. Its source is Lake Itasca in northern Minnesota and it flows generally south for 2,320 miles (3,730 km) to the Mississippi River Delta in the Gulf of Mexico. With its many tributaries, the Mississippi's watershed drains all or parts of 32 U.S. states and two Canadian provinces between the Rocky and Appalachian mountains. The main stem is entirely within the United States; the total drainage basin is 1,151,000 sq mi (2,980,000 km2), of which only about one percent is in Canada. The Mississippi ranks as the fourth-longest and fifteenth-largest river by discharge in the world. The river either borders or passes through the states of Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, Illinois, Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Mississippi, and Louisiana.

Unique Features

The cast-in-place cantilever box girder bridge design is the only one of its kind in Virginia.

The bridge is hollow. Beneath the riding surface, the box girders are open with a width of 18 feet (5 m) and a height which varies from 12 feet (4 m) to 35 feet (11 m). Power and communication lines are carried in the hollow concrete box and run the length of the bridge. Manholes in the bridge deck allow researchers to enter the box to monitor testing equipment.

Manhole the top opening to an underground utility vault used to house an access point for making connections, inspection, valve adjustments or performing maintenance on underground and buried public utility and other services

A manhole is the opening to a confined space such as a large vessel, a shaft or a utility vault.

The support structure of the bridge is inlaid with Hokie Stone to blend in with the environment and meld with the architectural stylings of Virginia Tech.

Hokie Stone

Hokie Stone is a grey dolomite—limestone rock found near Blacksburg, in western Virginia. It gets its name from the traditional nickname attributed to students and alumni of Virginia Tech.

Virginia Tech public research university with main campus in Blacksburg, Virginia

Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, commonly known as Virginia Tech and by the initialisms VT and VPI, is a public, land-grant, research university with its main campus in Blacksburg, Virginia. It also has educational facilities in six regions statewide and a study-abroad site in Riva San Vitale, Switzerland. Through its Corps of Cadets ROTC program, Virginia Tech is also designated as one of six senior military colleges in the United States.

Bridge Pictures

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References

  1. ↑ "Corridor Q: Route 460 Connector - Phase I". VDOT. February 24, 2016. Retrieved 2016-03-21.

See also

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