Carquinez Bridge

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Coordinates: 38 ° 3 ′ 39 ″  N , 122 ° 13 ′ 33 ″  W.

Carquinez Bridge
Carquinez Bridge
The Carquinez Bridge seen from the northeast, in the foreground the new suspension bridge, in the background the old bridge from 1958
Official name Alfred Zampa Memorial Bridge
use Motor vehicles: I-80 I-80.svg ,
(8 lanes in total),
pedestrians, cyclists
Crossing of Carquinez Street
place Vallejo, California and Crockett
Entertained by Caltrans
construction Cantilever bridge northwards,
suspension bridge southwards
overall length 1056 m
width 25.6 m
Longest span 728 m
height 105 m cantilever bridge,
125 m suspension bridge
Clear height 45 m
building-costs US $ 8 million for original bridge, US $
38 million for 1958 bridge, US $ 200 million for suspension bridge in 2003
opening May 21, 1927 (original bridge)
1958 (parallel bridge)
November 11, 2003 (new suspension bridge)
closure 2006 (original bridge)
toll $ 4.00 (northbound)
location
Carquinez Bridge (San Francisco Bay Area)
Carquinez Bridge
Aerial view of Carquinez Street with the Carquinez Bridge from 1927 (foreground) and 1958 (background)

The Carquinez Bridge is a section of Interstate 80 in California . It crosses the Carquinez Street between Vallejo and Crockett and thus enables a direct road connection between Sacramento and Oakland or San Francisco . The name now refers to a cantilever bridge and a parallel suspension bridge . The original Carquinez Bridge was the first major bridge in the Bay Area .

The Benicia – Martinez Bridge , the other bridge over Carquinez Street, is 10 km to the east.

history

Before the bridge was built, the land connection ran in a wide arc from Sacramento to the south via Stockton , then west via Tracy and the Altamont Pass in the Diablo Range to Livermore and on to the Bay Area , finally heading south to Oakland . Aven Hanford and Oscar Klatt opened a ferry service on Carquinez Street in 1917, shortening the route by 60 km to just 130 km. The ferry carried 400,000 vehicles in 1922.

First cantilever bridge (1927)

Because of the increased traffic, the ferry operators founded the American Toll Bridge Company in 1922 to build the Carquinez Bridge. The design was created by Robinson & Steinman . Construction work began in April 1923. Alfred Zampa began his long career as a bridge construction worker on this bridge in 1925, after which the suspension bridge, which opened in 2003, is named.

The first Carquinez Bridge opened on May 21, 1927 . It had two lanes and sidewalks on either side. The costs were 8 million dollars . It was the first major bridge in the San Francisco Bay Area and the largest west of the Mississippi . After its completion, the Lincoln Highway was also routed over the bridge.

It was a cantilever bridge with tanner girders , the wide central pillar of steel truss supported on foundations in the middle of Carquinez Street. It had two fields with spans of 335 m (1100 ft) and each with a suspension beam of 132 m in length. Their headroom was 45 m (148 ft). It was the first bridge where earthquakes were included in the planning.

In the year after its opening, 1 million vehicles crossed the bridge, in 1955 there were already 10 million vehicles. After the opening of the second bridge, its sidewalks were removed and the carriageway set up for three narrow lanes.

Second cantilever bridge (1958)

In 1958 a very similar bridge was built parallel to the existing 60 m upstream bridge to cope with the increased traffic. The original bridge served traffic to the south, the new bridge was intended for traffic to the north. The new bridge also has two main openings of 335 meters each, but was designed with three lanes and sidewalks from the start. It was not riveted like the original bridge , but welded .

After the opening of the new suspension bridge, the sidewalks were removed and the carriageway laid out on four strips without safety strips, which only drive north. At the same time, the earthquake resistance of the bridge was increased. There is a toll station on the north bank of the bridge.

Alfred Zampa Memorial Bridge (2003)

In November 2003 a new suspension bridge was opened downstream , which replaced the original bridge from 1927. This bridge was called the Alfred Zampa Memorial Bridge , named after the steel worker Alfred Zampa , who worked on many bridges in the San Francisco Bay , including the original bridge . He was one of the few people who survived a fall from the Golden Gate Bridge .

The bridge has four lanes, a safety lane on both sides of the carriageway and a separate, 3.60 m wide walkway and bike path on the western side, which was opened in May 2004. The traffic on the suspension bridge runs exclusively southwards and is toll-free.

The new bridge is the first long suspension bridge in the United States to have been built since the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge opened in 1964 . It is also the first suspension bridge in the USA to be built with concrete pylons and a flat, aerodynamically shaped steel box girder. It was built from segments prefabricated in Japan, which were lifted into position directly from the transport ship and welded as a deck girder.

The suspension bridge has a main opening with a span of 728 m and side openings with spans of 147 m and 181 m. The pylons are 125 m high above the water.

The bridge is only a few kilometers away from a geological fault and therefore had to be planned accordingly. It has been classified as an important bridge in the earthquake categories established by Caltrans , which does not suffer any loss of capacity in the case of frequent earthquakes and only suffers minor damage that does not need to be repaired immediately, and which also does not suffer any loss of capacity in the case of earthquakes which occur infrequently and only suffers damage that is minor Traffic disruption can be repaired.

Dismantling the original bridge

After it opened, traffic was directed over the new suspension bridge and the original (1927) bridge for a while to make the 1958 bridge more earthquake-proof . After this work was completed, the demolition of the original bridge began, which was completed on September 4, 2007.

Web links

Commons : Carquinez Bridge  - Album with pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Carquinez Bridge on baylinkferry.com.
  2. ^ John V. Robinson: Al Zampa and the Bay Area Bridges. Arcadia Publishing, Chareston SC 2005, ISBN 0-7385-2996-6 , p. 33.
  3. ↑ a b J.R. Manning: The Historical Importance of the Carquinez Bridge on bridgehunter.com.
  4. ↑ Plans of the suspension bridge
  5. ^ New Pedestrian / Bicycle Lane Opens on Carquinez Bridge on baycrossings.com.
  6. ^ Third Carquinez Strait Bridge on opacengineers.com
  7. ↑ Y. Honjo, O. Kusakabe, K. Matsui, G. Pokharel (Editor): Foundation Design Codes and Soil Investigation in View of International Harmonization and Performance Based Design. AA Balkema, Lisse, Netherlands 2002, ISBN 90-5809-381-6 .