It is being built to replace the Commercial Street Bridge, an 861-foot-long open concrete arch structure that rises up to 85 feet above Nine Mile Run and Frick Park in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Built in 1951, the four-lane bridge is integral. part of I-376/Parkway East, one of the busiest highways in western Pennsylvania with nearly 100,000 vehicles per day.
With the aging bridge already load-restricted due to structural deterioration, the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation and designer HDR evaluated a variety of methods for design-bid-build replacement. The accelerated bridge construction coupling technique was considered the best option to accommodate the topographical and alignment constraints.
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US freight cars and intermodal units for the first 36 weeks of 2024
Source: Association of American Railroads
Joseph B. Fay Co., Pittsburgh, will build the 825-foot-long, 80-foot-wide arched delta frame structure on temporary foundations. During a planned 25-day closure of the motorway in the summer of 2026, Fay will remove the old bridge using conventional and explosive demolition techniques, then put the £19m replacement in its place.
The $95 million project, scheduled for completion next year, will include lowering a nearby interchange ramp to increase vertical clearance under the freeway, relocating the sanitary sewer line , guide updates and the installation of traffic management technology.
The construction crew will also restore disturbed areas of Frick Park, which extends about a mile north across the Fern Hollow Bridge. This structure collapsed dramatically in January 2022 and reopened in less than a year after an accelerated reconstruction effort.
