Barton Creek Boulevard Bridge
Photos
Barton Creek Boulevard Bridge
Looking East
Photo taken by Royce and Bobette Haley in September 2014
BH Photo #294470
Description
The only single girder fin back bridge in America. It has an unsymmetrical span arrangement of 156, 340 and 190 feet. It was built as a cast in place, pre-stressed, box beam/girder balanced cantilever. This design essentially acts as an inverted haunched girder. It was built to showcase the entrance to the Estates of Barton Creek subdivision. A subdivision of Multi-million dollar houses. The design was chosen to minimize environmental impacts to the Barton Creek Gorge.Facts
- Overview
- Concrete fin back beam bridge over Barton Creek on Barton Creek Blvd.
- Location
- Travis County, Texas
- Status
- Open to traffic
- History
- Built 1986
- Builders
- - Prescon Corporation of Corpus Christi, Texas (Contractors)
- Quandel of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania (Engineer)
- Tony Gee & Partners LLP of Esher, Surrey, England, United Kingdom (Engineer)
- Design
- The only single girder fin back bridge in America. It has an unsymmetrical span arrangement of 156, 340 and 190 feet. It was built as a cast in place, pre-stressed, box beam/girder balanced cantilever. This design essentially acts as an inverted haunched girder.
- Dimensions
-
Length of largest span: 339.9 ft.
Total length: 694.9 ft.
Deck width: 47.9 ft.
- Approximate latitude, longitude
- +30.29639, -97.85139 (decimal degrees)
30°17'47" N, 97°51'05" W (degrees°minutes'seconds") - Approximate UTM coordinates
- 14/610453/3352186 (zone/easting/northing)
- Quadrangle map:
- Austin West
- Average daily traffic (as of 2010)
- 4,543
- Inventory numbers
- TXNBI 142270AA1856001 (Texas bridge number on the National Bridge Inventory)
BH 63037 (Bridgehunter.com ID) - Inspection report (as of April 2018)
- Overall condition: Good
Superstructure condition rating: Good (7 out of 9)
Substructure condition rating: Good (7 out of 9)
Deck condition rating: Good (7 out of 9)
Sufficiency rating: 87.9 (out of 100)
View more at BridgeReports.com
Update Log
- December 8, 2015: Updated by Erik Hoffman: Added category "Asymetrical"
- September 18, 2014: New Street View added by Royce and Bobette Haley
Sources
- Todd Wilson
- Royce and Bobette Haley - roycehaley111 [at] yahoo [dot] com
Comments
> Also what the heck am I looking at, this bridge confuses me.
There aren't a lot of photos, but what I'm seeing is sort of a single web "solid truss". Yes, "solid" and "truss" are mutually exclusive, but maybe it will help the thought process.
There are two functions.
First is the fins and the center beam make a rigid, load bearing span across space. So those fins are above the beam, so they are under compression - which is a good use for concrete. They are doing pretty much the same thing that a pony or through truss's webs are doing, except these are solid.
The second function is the side-to-side cantilevers that support the deck and transfer the load onto the center beam. This is show by the under-the-deck photos.
Does this help? Or am I answering the wrong question?
As it is asymmetrical, with the demolition of the Nine Span Bridge should this be listed as last of it's kind? Being the last notable Asymmetric bridge in the country.
Also what the heck am I looking at, this bridge confuses me.
This page's URL is http://bridgehunter.com/tx/travis/bh63037/
This just seems to be this: http://bridgehunter.com/oh/gallia/adamsville/ but with just one girder instead of two