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Washington Avenue Bridge

Hennepin County, Minnesota

Map 

Street Views 

Description 

So, when is a bridge a girder--and a steel stringer--and a deck truss--all in one? This bridge started out in 1965 as a plain deck girder bridge and remained as such until 2010, when a massive project began to upgrade the bridge to carry light-rail traffic. The plan was to add stringers to increase the load-carrying capability, but the original stucture's rigid cross-members didn't allow it. The design engineers came up with a very creative and innovative way to address this--instead of solid stringers, trusses were designed and installed, one member at a time, to fit around the existing sway bracing without having to remove any of it! And so, as a result, the main spans still retain their full original girder system, with multiple "stringer-trusses" to support the light rail vehicles.

Facts 

Overview
Girder bridge over Mississippi River & East River Pkwy on Washington Avenue
Location
Minneapolis, Hennepin County, Minnesota
Status
Open to traffic
History
Built 1965; upgraded 2010-2012
Builder
- AECOM of Los Angeles. California
Railroads
- Light Rail
- Metro Transit
Design
Girder/steel stringer/deck truss
Dimensions
Length of largest span: 315.3 ft.
Total length: 1,131.0 ft.
Deck width: 58.1 ft.
Approximate latitude, longitude
+44.97318, -93.23945   (decimal degrees)
44°58'23" N, 93°14'22" W   (degrees°minutes'seconds")
Approximate UTM coordinates
15/481118/4979999 (zone/easting/northing)
Quadrangle map:
Saint Paul West
Average daily traffic (as of 2005)
18,800
Inventory numbers
MN 9360 (Minnesota bridge number)
BH 59219 (Bridgehunter.com ID)
Inspection report (as of August 2017)
Overall condition: Fair
Superstructure condition rating: Satisfactory (6 out of 9)
Substructure condition rating: Satisfactory (6 out of 9)
Deck condition rating: Good (7 out of 9)
Sufficiency rating: 90.3 (out of 100)
View more at BridgeReports.com

Categories 

AECOM (3)
Built 1965 (234)
Built during 1960s (2,150)
Continuous (2,641)
Functionally obsolete (5,799)
Girder (11,222)
Haunched deck plate girder (92)
Have street view (29,166)
Hennepin County, Minnesota (207)
Light Rail (17)
 Metro Transit (4)
Minneapolis, Minnesota (149)
Minnesota (1,652)
Open (41,013)
Owned by county (21,656)
Rail-and-Road (397)
Railroad (16,518)
Span length 250-500 feet (1,263)
Total length 1000-2500 feet (2,005)

Update Log 

  • January 14, 2014: New Street View added by Matt Lohry
  • January 13, 2014: Added by Matt Lohry

Sources 

  • Matt Lohry
  • Luke
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Comments 

Washington Avenue Bridge
Posted June 5, 2014, by Patrick Watz (pwatz [at] hntb [dot] com)

Retrofit design for LRT was completed by AECOM's Philly office.

Washington Avenue Bridge
Posted April 13, 2014, by Fmiser (fmiser [at] gmail [dot] com)

Pat - which designer? The original - or the 2010 rebuild?

Washington Avenue Bridge
Posted April 13, 2014, by Patrick Goggin (goggin [at] augsburg [dot] edu)

I'm writing a paper on this bridge for a college class, and I've been having a hard time finding out anything about this bridge's designer. Does anyone know who designed it or where I could find that information?

Thanks,

Pat