Download or read book Construction of the Robert E. Lee Bridge, Richmond, Virginia written by and published by . This book was released on 1990 with total page 11 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Robert E. Lee Bridge is a segmental box girder structure which replaces the concrete arch bridge that had carried US Route 1 over the James River in Richmond, Virginia since 1934. The typical 285 ft. span, variable depth girder was selected to emulate the arches of its soon-to-be-demolished predecessor. Three northbound and three southbound lanes, with full 10 ft. shoulders marked as bicycle paths and 4 ft. sidewalks on each side, travel across 15 spans. The typical width of the northbound and southbound bridges is 54 ft.-1.5 in. The bridge has bifurcated sections off the southbound structure at the south end and to the north. Both the northbound and the southbound structures have ramps tying into Second Street which runs under the new bridge. The fifteen spans, with a total length of 3,755 ft., were built by the balanced cantilever method with the exception of the first span from the south abutment and the three ramps which were built on falsework. The superstructure is divided into areas by six joints with typical joint locations at the abutments and at the centre of the 285 ft. spans. The appearance of the bridge from below was a major concern because of the public use of the island park. The cast-in-place solution provided smooth curved sections with monolithic pours providing a consistent soffit texture and colour. In addition, the number of piers was minimized with the two-box system providing a more open view. Plans presently call for supporting a pedestrian bridge from the superstructure under four typical spans from the north shore to Belle Island. For the covering abstract of the Conference see IRRD Abstract No. 807839.