Huey P. Long Bridge (Jefferson Parish)
Photos
Approaching the bridge below the south rail approach
Photo taken by Nathan Morton in July 2010
Video
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Crossing the Huey P. Long Bridge on Amtrak's Sunset Limited May 11, 2012
Amtrak's westbound Sunset Limited crosses the Huey P. Long bridge while leaving the Big Easy (New Orleans). We pass a Union Pacific Manifest train as we descend back on to land. (Good view of bridge structure from rear window of train.) YouTube user bcanedy |
Facts
- Overview
- Cantilevered through truss bridge over the Mississippi River on US 90 in Jefferson
- Location
- Bridge City, Jefferson Parish, Louisiana
- Status
- Open to traffic
- History
- Opened to traffic December 16, 1935; widening completed June 16, 2013
- Builder
- - Ralph Modjeski of Bochnia, Poland (Chief Engineer)
- Design
- Cantilevered through truss-Approaches are Warren deck truss all verticals, Deck plate girders, concrete stringers, steel stringers
- Dimensions
-
Length of largest span: 790.0 ft.
Total length: 22,996.0 ft. (4.4 mi.)
Deck width: 36.1 ft.
- Approximate latitude, longitude
- +29.94500, -90.16833 (decimal degrees)
29°56'42" N, 90°10'06" W (degrees°minutes'seconds") - Approximate UTM coordinates
- 15/773314/3316063 (zone/easting/northing)
- Inventory number
- BH 19034 (Bridgehunter.com ID)
- Inspection (as of 12/2013)
- Deck condition rating: Good (7 out of 9)
Superstructure condition rating: Very Good (8 out of 9)
Substructure condition rating: Very Good (8 out of 9)
Sufficiency rating: 72.2 (out of 100) - Average daily traffic (as of 2015)
- 36,900
Update Log
- April 2, 2017: New video from Roger Deschner
- January 11, 2017: Updated by Christopher Finigan: Added categories "Pin-connected", "Riveted"
- January 10, 2017: Updated by Royce and Bobette Haley: added approaches
- February 17, 2014: Updated by Clark Vance: Added category "Widened"
- August 1, 2013: New photo from M. D. Caillet
- June 21, 2013: New photos from Jared Mixson
- June 20, 2013: Updated by Jared Mixson: widening completed
- December 12, 2012: New photo from Jared Mixson
- October 15, 2012: New photo from Jared Mixson
- September 19, 2012: New photo from Jared Mixson
- February 2, 2012: Updated by James Baughn: Designated as a National Historic Civil Engineering Landmark
- July 10, 2010: New photo from Nathan Morton
- July 8, 2010: New photos from Nathan Morton
- April 19, 2010: New Street View added by Nathan Holth
Sources
- Wikipedia
- Nathan Holth
- Nathan Morton - morton890 [at] yahoo [dot] com
- James Baughn - webmaster [at] bridgehunter [dot] com
- Jared Mixson
- Royce and Bobette Haley - roycehaley111 [at] yahoo [dot] com
- Roger Deschner - rogerdeschner [at] gmail [dot] com
Comments
http://www.timedla.com/bridge/long/overview/
Is a discussion and notes page for the widening of this bridge. It is a unique widening of the truss structure while the bridge remains open.
Really a neat concept
The middle cantilevered span is fascinating. I have not noticed one like it before.
An engineering description of the project:
http://www.modernsteel.com/Uploads/Issues/September_2010/092...
Mainly a railroad bridge, the auto lanes were 1930s 18 foot with pipe railing. It was a pretty exciting motorcycle ride: massive steel and perhaps a train along one side and barely anything between you and the river far below on the other side.
Their renderings seem to show that they're taking great care to copy the existing design in the expansion, right down to the beam stylings and cross-lacing. Is this true? It seems to me that they expect the structure to last forever as rarely do I see anyone make such a large investment to remodel an existing bridge (especially one 75 years old!) in favor of new construction! Then again, rail bridges do seem to last nearly forever just because of how their built and the matter-of-fact way in which rail companies keep them maintained.
This bridge is going through a dramatic transformation to say the least. Trusses added to the roadways, makes awesome sense. Will be a neat crossing once it is all done.
This is an incredible bridge! Adding some Street Views to show this.
The Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development is currently undertaking a project to widen the vehicular lanes on the span. The project will take a while, so if you need to cross via the Huey P Long bridge, exercise caution while they work on it!
Longest railroad bridge in the US
This page's URL is http://bridgehunter.com/la/jefferson/22600060100001/