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| Point Marion Bridge $1 Million Under Budget
Located on the point between two rivers near the Mason-Dixon Line, Point Marion, Pennsylvania has been called the "Gateway to West Virginia." Truck drivers had other names for the town when their big rigs became stuck as they tried to negotiate a 90-degree turn onto a narrow stretch of roadway from an even narrower bridge over the Cheat River. For nearly a century, that narrow bridge carried route 119 over the Cheat River near its confluence with the Monongahela River. But as vehicles became longer, wider and heavier, the town and its bridge became a trucker's bottleneck and their trucks frequently became corks that closed the roadway for hours, creating a 25-mile detour and long interruptions to local river crossings. Buchart-Horn, Inc.'s analysis of possible rehabilitation of the old bridge led to design for a replacement structure and a new alignment. Today, a new three-span bridge over the Cheat River improves highway safety as well as traffic movement on Route 119 in this section of southern Fayette County near West Virginia. Following construction of the new bridge, workers removed that badly deteriorated and heavily used narrow truss bridge constructed in the early 1900s. Prime contractor Brayman Construction Company of Gibsonia, Pennsylvania opened the new bridge months ahead of schedule, and completed construction more than $1 million under budget. Actual construction costs totaled just over $7 million against estimated construction costs of $8.3 million. Work on the new bridge began on March 30, 1998, opening a 15-month construction period that was to continue until June 25, 1999. When conditions worsened on the old bridge, late in '98, engineers opened the new span in January of 1999, more than five months ahead of schedule. While the new bridge opened early, work continued on paving and other approach construction, all of which was completed within the original construction schedule. The new bridge is considerably longer than the original river crossing, since the roadway was skewed to the river to eliminate 90-degree roadway turns on eastern approaches. This design skews the bridge 55 degrees to the Cheat River in order to improve the alignment of SR119 on the east side of the river while tying into Point Marions's Main Street at the same location as the previous bridge. Engineers from Buchart-Horn, Inc. also designed the new bridge location so that the old crossing could remain open during construction of the new one, since a detour of the bridge sites would have been more than 25 miles. The design solution to that challenge involves a slight curve at the end of the new bridge. It also required tapering the girders on the end span so the roadway elevations could be matched while keeping the bottom of the girders above the elevation of a 50-year flood at the Point Marion abutment. The new crossing is 700 feet long, with a center span of 257 feet and abutment spans of 217 feet. It provides two 12-foot traffic lanes and two 8-foot shoulders. A five-foot wide pedestrian sidewalk is separated from vehicular traffic by a barrier. Total bridge width is just under 50 feet. Demonstrating the importance of the bridge to local residents, the dedication ceremonies this summer drew the largest crowd people could recall for a ribbon- cutting event. In that crowd was Jim McCullough, Superintendant for Brayman Construction Company. In a conversation with a Buchart-Horn, bridge designer, McCullough pointed out the unusual pier design. "I've been building them for 40 years, and never saw a pier system with caps like that. But once I got the picture, it all made good sense and we got it together." Buchart-Horn's bridge designer explained that since the bridge is skewed 55 degrees to the river flow, he designed circular piers to minimize water turbulence. For structrural reasons, the piers support the bridge girders on overhanging hammerhead cantilever caps that are skewed 70 degrees to the river flow. Buchart-Horn's Bridge design will also protect Point Marion from water levels that could be expected from a 100-year flood. The span's girders have haunches to maximize clearance above predicted flood levels. Clearance was critical at the south end of the bridge, where the abutment determined minimum water clearance and the girder was haunched with a taper to its end. In addition, the new south side abutment was integrated into the old abutment. Point Marion's Police Officer, Gary Reynold said his new challenge is to control speed in the area, but even with faster travel the new span promotes safety. "We've have much less trouble, especially on the north end of the bridge," Reynold said, "and none of those projects to free a stuck truck that used to take many hours."
EXISTING BRIDGE DATA
NEW BRIDGE DATA
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