The American Tobacco Trail project consisted of a pedestrian trail with a signature bridge over I-40 in Durham, North Carolina. The bridge was constructed using twin, 30-inch diameter by 1-1/2-inch steel pipe arches for support. This size of pipe is not manufactured domestically to meet the specifications of the contract. Blythe Construction had to get the pipe made from 1-1/2-inch steel plates that were rolled into pipes, welded longitudinally, and then welded end-to-end to form the arches. The deck was a combination of cast-in-place and precast ribbon deck. The bridge’s main span across I-40 is 209 feet long. There is a stainless steel decorative fence on each side of the bridge, with up-lighting underneath to accentuate the bridge at night.
What makes it interesting?
The bridge joined two trail segments to form a continuous 22-mile shared use path corridor. Data collected before and after the addition of the bridge found trail usage increased 133 percent. An additional $3.7 million is spent annually on goods and services by those using the trail. The research also showed gains in physical activity and economic impact measured by people using the trail, just three months after the bridge opened.
How HCSS Software assisted with this project
HeavyBid allowed us to break down the activities of this bridge into manageable segments. This was a very unusual, one-of-a-kind bridge that had to be built over live traffic. None of the formwork was standard or the same. The ability to break down these tasks into smaller activities allowed the estimator to tackle this bid.
