Public Unveiling: New Indian River Inlet Bridge Design Revealed and Design Build Team Presented


Indian River Inlet -- Governor Ruth Ann Minner, Delaware Department of Transportation (DelDOT) Secretary Carolann Wicks, state and local officials, residents and others were on hand at a Sept. 17 event to unveil the design for a new bridge over the Indian River Inlet and present the selected design/build team - Skanska USA Civil Southeast - to the public.

"This is a vital project for the residents of Sussex County and visitors to our beach resorts," Gov. Ruth Ann Minner said. "I look forward to driving over this beautiful bridge and offer my thanks and appreciation in advance to the Delaware Department of Transportation and Skanska for the hard work that will be necessary to bring this project to completion."

Skanska has already begun some pre-construction activities in the area. Heavy construction would begin in early 2009. The bridge will be open to traffic by the summer of 2011.

Skanska Southeast was awarded the $150 million-design build project and signed a contract in August. Of the three proposals received for the project, Skanska had the lowest price, highest technical score and proposed the quickest completion time. The new design is dramatic and functional. It will have four towers with a single plane of cable stays on each side of the bridge, has a narrow profile over the Inlet and provides an efficient design. For comparison, Williams V. Roth Jr. Bridge over the Chesapeake & Delaware Canal has two towers and a single plane of cable stays down the center of the bridge.

The new bridge will also be 2,600 feet long, including a 900 feet clear span over the Inlet, with 1,700 feet of bridge over land. All supports will be out of the water, eliminating the conditions that have occurred on the existing bridge. The new bridge will have a minimum 100-year design life. The foundation consists of 36-inch-square piles to be manufactured by Bayshore Concrete Products, a subsidiary of Skanska Southeast. Skanska had previously used these types of piles on the Escambia Bay I-10 Bridges in Florida.

More info @ DelDot with some neat facts
PDF link to same

IR Bridge Project dedicated site







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And so it continues to continue with the continuation.

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Ignorance is our most expensive commodity ...

so basically, it looks like the bridge over the C&D Canal... and honestly, I don't care what it looks like, I just wish they'd finish it!!!

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WOAH! IMHO thats a lil too fancy looking. When I'm surf fishing at Savage's Ditch or Three R's I don't want to turn around and see giant towers of a bridge behind me, I just wanna see the sky with no obstruction because the beach is suppose to be a place where you relax and bridge would remind me of a city. I'm not saying the bridge isn't nice. Because it's definelty a cool looking bridge, I'm just saying I think its the wrong place for that kind of bridge

I mean a giant ass suspension bridge

I honestly can't really think of anything other than a suspension bridge that would work for that type of application, but I'm sure some engineer out there could think of something.

All I'm saying is that in my opinion it would ruin the view from the beach and might ruin the whole beach atmosphere feeling

The current bridge spans 860 feet across the inlet with piers in the water (a problem because of the water current) and the new one will span 900 feet with a total length of 2,600 feet. The intial "new bridge" design from 2003, that one that got tanked would have spanned 1,000 feet, either way, going with the latter two figures and the need to keep the supports out of the water there's no way to span that distance without some form of suspension or cable stay.

Here's a rendition of the one that was scrapped:

leave it to Del DOT to waste more money

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I love the way there's always a nice couple walking and a guy with his kid and such....no drunk guy with a cooler or some fat sun burned chick.

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