2002 Eighth Biennial Bridge Awards Competition
Eight Concrete Bridges Selected for Awards
of Excellence
Eight winners have been named in PCA’s Eighth Biennial Bridge Awards Competition.
The competition, instituted in 1988, recognizes excellence in design and
construction of concrete bridges.
The 2002 program attracted 55 outstanding entries from Canada and the United
States.
All structures were essentially completed between October 2000 and October 2002.
The entries covered a variety of structure types and construction methods.
The winners were selected based on creativity, functionality, and economy
by a jury of three prominent bridge professionals:
Benjamin Tang, Senior Structural Engineer, Federal Highway Administration, Washington
D.C.
Edward Wasserman, Civil Engineering Director – Structures, Tennessee Department
of Transportation, Nashville, Tennessee
Frederick Gottemoeller, Principal, Rosales Gottemoeller & Associates, Inc. Columbia,
Maryland.
All winning entries will receive an Award of Excellence at the American Concrete
Institute Awards Program
to be held in March 2003 in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
The award-winning entries are listed below without regard to ranking or category.
Truckee River Bridge and Overhead
Truckee, California
Nestled in the Truckee Basin between the Sierra Nevada mountains to the west
and the Carson Range to the east,
this 1,525-ft (465-m) long, 7-span bridge features a cast-in-place post-tensioned
box girder structure.
The depth of the superstructure with a maximum span of 233 ft (71 m) ranges
from 7 ft, 7 in. (2.3 m) at the mid-span to 15 ft (4.57 m) at the piers.
The artful proportioning of the bridge is achieved by 9 ft, 6 in. (2.9 m) deck
overhangs, out of a total deck width of 42 ft, 8 in. (13 m) and bi-directional
parabolic flaring of 9-ft (2.75-m) square columns to create an arch-like effect.
To combat the harsh winter environment and extend the service life of the bridge,
the designers chose high performance concrete, epoxy coated reinforcement, and
a polymer concrete overlay.
Project Principals:
Caltrans District 3, owner;
Caltrans, Division of Engineering Services, engineer;
Caltrans, Bridge Architecture and Aesthetics Branch, architect;
MCM Construction Inc. and Ladd and Associates, Inc., contractors;
and Truckee North Tahoe Materials,
Inc., concrete supplier.
Jury Comments:
This is a terrific example of how to accomplish a lot with very simple
elements.
Assemble just the right shapes,
give them just the right proportions,
and the effect is an extremely elegant bridge that fits its environment very
well.