Official: Missouri River Pedestrian Bridge

[SaOmaha]

Let's leave this redicklsit discussion about marrying thinks, which you can't do legally. You can only love them for a time.

Let's get back to the progress on the construction of the Pedestrian Bridge.

Saturday afternoon. I hiked from the Bemis Center to Lewis & Clark Landing's labor Sculpture and back. I took some photos from the labor Sculpture Area.

Refection of Iowa spine


Crane and Labor Sculpture frame the Nebraska Spine


Nebraska Spine itself


Digital Zoom from the labor Sculpture Area. The suspension cable appears to be tighten. They are not! The first section of concrete bridge with "lockout platform" facing south has been placed on the open deck framework.


Looking back at the two spines en-route back toward the Bemis Center


Edited Nov 18th - Now the last picture matches the text above it.

[Harpoon]

Are those Pterodactyls flying around in the photos there?

[StreetsOfOmaha]

Am I the only one who's never heard bridge support towers called "spines?"

[Brad]

[SaOmaha]

I use the term spines for the bridges towers or Piers because other members of the eomahaforums community few page ages used this term in this thread. Thank you for pointing out the correct terms for the towers.

[ShawJ]

[SaOmaha]

[adam186]

[Big E]

Thank God you explained that!!  I was pterodactyl-proofing my condo.  You just saved me thousands of dollars!

Now, off to the silver bullet and lambs blood store...

-Big E

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Let's float down sweat together in Omaha.

[almighty_tuna]

You better keep those plans intact, E.  Why, just last week here at Gallup I had a near brush with such a creature while shooting on the roof.  In fact, this may not be such an isolated event:

www.1timothy4-13.com/files/bible/dino.html

[thenewguy]

"It's Godzilla!!!"

[OmahaJaysCU]

[thenewguy]

Do you think it'd be over-kill if they did something similar to the golden gate or brooklyn bridge over the river?  I mean i know that they use it for longer spans than what we have, but when i was a kid i always thought it'd be cool to have something like that to drive across here.  I realize the feasibility of building a new bridge is slim to none, but it'd be cool to dream  Maybe DTO could render something like he did for the Wallstreet Tower?  By the way, how's that "Omaha in 15 years" rendering coming?

[DTO Luv]

You'll know in 15 years.

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[thenewguy]

[SaOmaha]

Finally your are talking about something other than Pterodactyls you spotted in my Refection of Iowa spine (Piers) photo.  almighty_tuna, you had fun with Photoshop and had an interesting weblink on spotting them through the ages.  This talk about Pterodactyls is for the turkeys.  That is what we eat yesterday.  Happy delayed Thanksgivings.

Anyone can speculate what the Omaha/Council Buffs riverfront would look like in 15 Years.  Let's Hope it will be more beautiful and enjoyable than today.  Let's work toward that! Finishing this Pedestrian Bridge is one step toward this.

The new interstate bridge would not be built across the river unless traffic demands it. Let's hope at that time, they will build a more attractive bridge.

[Harpoon]

The 480 bridge is not targeted for reconstruction any time in the near future. The section across the river where it connects to I-29 is slated for reconfiguration with the 4th phase of interstate improvements which could be 20 years down the road (they are currently on phase 2 with the I-80 bridge and connections to I-29).

We are stuck with the ugly bridge, traffic demand is not currently forecasted to meet the demand for a new bridge.

[Kate Shelley]

The Minneapolis bridge is 220 feet long.  The back-spans of our pedestrian bridge are about 250 feet long and the main span is 506 feet long.  The cables used there are finished and sized just like ours will be... galvanized steel at either 1.5" or 1.75" diameter.  You can see in those photos that they show up very well when illuminated against a black sky. Against blue or gray sky, their visibility may depend on the sun's angle. Due to the S-curve in the cable planes, the cables will all look a little different anyway you look at them.

Here is a good place to see the Minneapolis bridge cables both day & night:
http://flickr.com/photos/diversey/sets/72157603024653697/

In the old design (the original bridge that was too expensive) the cables were in fact much thicker & sheathed as you've pointed out, but that was due to the extremely heavy bridge they would be supporting. That design was to have a concrete deck with a profile more than 3 times as deep as what you now see being built from steel.   Concrete is often cheaper than steel, but usually more expensive to fabricate a bridge made out of it.  It seldom is used in a sentence by architects that includes the words "delicate" or "light."

I enjoyed the discussion about pterodactyls and spines and loving the bridge.  When I think of a spine, I think of a ridge or linear element that connects two surfaces, like a book cover, or connecting two sets of ribs.  I suppose the cables look like ribs.  Technical terms for this element would be Tower, Pylon or Pier, though the latter typically refers to a structure that terminates below deck.

Please keep posting great photos and updating us on the progress!

Kate Shelley

[Brad]

The next section of deck is going up right now.

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Greater Omaha Chamber of Commerce Member

[thenewguy]

I'm sure the decking will be sturdy enough, or they would not have gone through with construction, but it seems thin when compared to what it could have been.  I'm no bridge expert, so i could just have my head in my |expletive| on this one.  And again, it just seems to me like it's going to be done WAY before next fall.  What do you think?  I know the scope of this isn't like the Golden Gate or anything, but it just seems to be moving quickly.

[the1wags]

A couple of pics with the new section of deck steel up.

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[Brad]

Absolutely amazing.  Look how tiny the workers are up there!

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[Ben]

Wow, they're making great progress on extending the bridge from the Nebraska side.  Any idea when they're supposed to put up the horizontal support on the CB tower (or whatever we're supposed to refer to them as now), and start hanging bridge from that side too?  Once they get that side going, things look like they could progress rather quickly...

I see plenty of steel and cabling sitting over there, so I doubt its a lack of supplies that holding them up.    Is it a shortage of personnel?  Will they hang the entire Omaha side, then move everyone over to the other?  Hopefully that's not the case...  I know that they've been doing plenty of work on the approach ramp from CB, but it might be a more specialized crew hanging bridge deck. I don't know.

[the1wags]

That's what I'm guessing is that they are working on getting the CB approach done before they start in on the deck steel and cables. I believe that they are calling the "arm" a cantilever bracket. They just need to place it and I beam "cap" one of the temporary supports on the CB side to start hanging steel. I am also anxious to see things progressing from both sides. I want to see the crane on the barge hanging deck steel, should be interesting.

_________________
11 3/4" by 36" Omaha skyline poster now available! $10 in hand/$15 shipped.

www.joshuawarrender.com josh@joshuawarrender.com

[Ben]

Still no cantilever bracket on the Iowa tower, but they strung up the first several sets of cables today, which means decking can't be far behind.  

On the Omaha side, they've moved the crane back from the water's edge, which leads me to believe that rest of the extensions over the river are going to be handled by moving the barge crane out into the middle of the river.  That should be neat to see!

[Ben]

Cantilever arm went up today on the Iowa tower.  Also, they've driven more pilings, and have moved the barge crane further out, almost to the middle of the river (just past the end of the temporary bridge), so that it can reach the north side of the Iowa tower.

They must expect to have the span up by spring time, and not need the barge crane any more.  There's no way they could have those recently added pilings that are positioning the barge still in place once river traffic picks up.  That's an accident waiting to happen, as its practically in the middle of the channel.

[StreetsOfOmaha]

Much progress has been made on the circular retaining wall for the bridge landing on the Omaha side.

[Brad]

I have a photo of it somewhere.  Its been done for a few weeks now.

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[StreetsOfOmaha]

No one had commented on it, so I thought I'd mention it.

[Brad]