The Plymouth Avenue Bridge is a segmental bridge that spans the Mississippi River in Minneapolis, Minnesota. It was built in 1983 and was designed by VanDoren-Hazard-Stallings. The construction of this bridge was unique, for it was the first segmental concrete girder bridge built in Minnesota. This method of design uses a "form traveler" that shapes the concrete as it is built out from the piers. This avoided the use of falsework and avoided impeding river traffic. The concrete is also engineered to be salt-resistant by the use of post-tensioning. Tubes run through the concrete structure carrying strands of cable. With tension on the cables, the structure is designed to be under compression. This prevents cracks and hinders the intrusion of salt water. Since then, other bridges in Minnesota have used this construction method, including the I-35W Saint Anthony Falls Bridge in Minneapolis, the Wabasha Street Bridge in downtown St. Paul and the Wakota Bridge in South St. Paul.
The original bridge was a wooden Howe truss design, built in 1873. This was built when Minneapolis, then only on the west side of the river, consolidated with the city of St. Anthony, on the east side of the river. As part of the merger, Minneapolis (the western city) agreed to build two bridges, one upstream of the Hennepin Avenue Bridge and one downstream. That bridge was replaced in 1886 with an iron truss bridge. It was remodeled in 1913 and then raised in 1953 for more clearance. As a result of deterioration over the years, the bridge was closed in 1981 because the floor beams were rusted.
On Friday, October 22, 2010, the Plymouth Avenue Bridge was closed indefinitely "as a precaution, pending further investigation after a routine inspection discovered corrosion on cables that run through the bridge." The bridge was reopened to foot traffic on Thursday, January 6, 2011 after engineers determined that the bridge was safe for pedestrian and bicycle use. Use by vehicular traffic will not be allowed until corroded cables can be replaced, a project that, following several delays, is expected to take place in October 2012.
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Famous quotes containing the words plymouth, avenue and/or bridge:
“In clear weather the laziest may look across the Bay as far as Plymouth at a glance, or over the Atlantic as far as human vision reaches, merely raising his eyelids; or if he is too lazy to look after all, he can hardly help hearing the ceaseless dash and roar of the breakers. The restless ocean may at any moment cast up a whale or a wrecked vessel at your feet. All the reporters in the world, the most rapid stenographers, could not report the news it brings.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Only in America ... do these peasants, our mothers, get their hair dyed platinum at the age of sixty, and walk up and down Collins Avenue in Florida in pedalpushers and mink stoles—and with opinions on every subject under the sun. It isn’t their fault they were given a gift like speech—look, if cows could talk, they would say things just as idiotic.”
—Philip Roth (b. 1933)
“What need the bridge much broader than the flood?”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)