Glen Canyon Bridge
Coordinates: 36 ° 56 ′ 8 ″ N , 111 ° 29 ′ 1 ″ W.
| Glen Canyon Bridge | ||
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| Convicted |
 US Highway 89
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| Crossing of | Colorado River | |
| place | Page , Arizona | |
| construction | Steel arch bridge | |
| overall length | 387.4 m | |
| width | 11.6 m | |
| Number of openings | a | |
| Longest span | 313.3 m | |
| Arrow height | 50.3 m | |
| height | 213 m | |
| planner | Robert Sailer | |
| location | ||
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The Glen Canyon Bridge was the tallest and is now the third tallest steel arch bridge in the United States . As part of US Highway 89, it crosses the Colorado River flowing through Glen Canyon just below Glen Canyon Dam near Page in Arizona .
description
The 387.4 m (1128 ft ) long road bridge connects the precipice of Glen Canyon and crosses the bed of the Colorado River at a height of 213 m (700 ft). When it opened, it was the second tallest bridge in the world ; In 2018 it was in 4th place in the USA and no longer in the top 30 worldwide.
The bridge crosses the gorge with a large sheet with a span of 313.3 m (1,028 ft), the sagittal height 50.3 m (165 ft) is. The arch is made up of two trussed girders , the straps of which consist of hollow boxes . The distance between the upper and lower straps decreases from 11.28 m (37 ft) on the fighters to 6.70 m (22 ft) at the top. They are connected and stiffened with horizontal and diagonal struts. The abutments on which the arches rest were concreted into the almost vertical rock wall. The roadway girder is elevated on the truss girders with long, thin supports with a rectangular hollow cross-section. The roadway consists of a 15 cm (6 inches) thick, reinforced concrete pavement.
The bridge is 11.58 m (38 ft) wide, divided into a 9.14 m (30 ft) wide two-lane carriageway and two 1.22 m (4 ft) wide walkways.
history
When the US Congress decided to build the Glen Canyon Dam on April 11, 1956, there was nothing but desert around the future construction site . The nearest town was Flagstaff , Arizona, 214 km away , in the south with a road to the settlement of Bitter Springs and 114 km away Kanab , Utah in the west. Roads had to be built first from Kanab to the right edge of Glen Canyon and from Bitter Springs to its left edge. The construction workers initially camped in caravans on the left, eastern side of the gorge, until a settlement with appropriate utilities developed, which was later named after John C. Page, the head of the Bureau of Reclamation .
So that the construction workers could at least cross the gorge on foot, Roebling Steel Co. initially had a light suspension bridge installed. In the long run, however, a permanent bridge was required, which should be available for truck traffic on the construction site as early as possible.
The bridge was designed by Robert Sailer, director of the bridge division of the Bureau of Reclamation in Denver. On January 1, 1957, the Kiewit-Judson Murphy joint venture received the building contract. In February 1957, manufacture of the bridge began at the California plant . There, a complete truss, lying on its side, was temporarily assembled and then dismantled again into its individual parts, which were then transported to the opposite sides of the construction site. There, the parts were lifted to their intended position by two cable cranes and assembled in a cantilever . The two arched sections protruding over the gorge were guyed with ropes until they met in the middle with great precision. For the safety of the workers, nets were stretched across the gorge.
On February 20, 1959, after a little more than two years, the bridge was inaugurated.
The Glen Canyon Bridge and Visitor Center (north-west view)
The Glen Canyon Bridge (South East View)
Web links
- Glen Canyon Dam Bridge on HighestBridges.com
- Robert Sailer: Glen Canyon Bridge - Highlights on Design, Fabrication and Erection. In: National Engineering Conference, 1960 Proceedings. American Institute of Steel Construction, p. 47–50 ( digital copy , p. 50 missing; PDF, 12 MB)
- Jedediah Rogers: Glen Canyon Unit . Bureau of Reclamation, 2006 ( digitized; PDF, 145 kB)
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Glen Canyon Bridge ... on lake-powell-country.com
- ↑ The technical details are based on the essay by Robert Sailer: Glen Canyon Bridge - Highlights on Design, Fabrication and Erection.