The new bridge will provide for four 12-foot-wide through lanes and a 4-foot-wide raised median with 10-foot-wide shoulders and a 10-foot-wide bike trail.
Its access on the Iowa side will stretch to just west of 36th Street where it will hook up with the South Omaha Bridge Road that will be widened to four lanes under a different project.
Most of the new bridge will be constructed while traffic is maintained on the existing bridge.
That bridge, however, will have to close for four to six months in the construction's final stages to complete the new structure.
Traffic will be detoured along Interstate 80 via South 13th Street in Omaha and South 24th Street in Council Bluffs.
Work is to begin in the fall of 2007 and completed three years later, officials said.
Residents raised concerns Thursday about increased traffic, noise and loss of homes if the state proceeds with plans for replacing the Veterans Memorial Bridge in south Omaha.
Janet Bonet, a representative of the Spring Lake Neighborhood Association, said residents will be glad to have a wider, safer bridge. People in south Omaha use the bridge to get to Council Bluffs, and a new bridge would make the trip quicker and easier, she said.
Residents also are glad the new bridge would include a sidewalk, she said.
But Bonet said neighbors are concerned that increased traffic from the bigger bridge could make the neighborhood dangerous, particularly for children.
The Roads Department says the 69-year-old bridge needs to be replaced because it is deteriorating and too narrow, considering that traffic counts are predicted to increase.
The state says the intersection of 13th Street and Missouri Avenue must be reconstructed as part of the project.
The reconstruction of 13th Street would extend from south of O Street to J Street. The work on Missouri Avenue would extend west to 16th Street.
"Destiny is not a matter of chance, it is a matter of choice; it is not a thing to be waited for, it is a thing to be achieved."
It was 102 yeasterday... every picture I posted on all the different threads were taken with out getting out the airconditoned car. I also took every single one without tresspassing!
I'll be glad when they get this new bridge up and going. I drove on that old thing a few yrs back and thought I was gonna die. The thing is a death trap.
OPlaya wrote:I'll be glad when they get this new bridge up and going. I drove on that old thing a few yrs back and thought I was gonna die. The thing is a death trap.
I don't think there's anyway we could disagree about this more.
Omaha World Herald wrote:Spring Lake Neighborhood Association leaders and veterans groups are pushing for an unusual change in plans for a new Veterans Memorial Bridge in south Omaha. They want the state to buy more houses than planned. It's an idea that appears popular with just about everybody -even the affected homeowners.
The state would buy the three houses northwest of 13th Street and Missouri Avenue as part of the $88 million bridge construction project planned to begin in 2007. The intersection is going to be torn up anyway, and a turn lane and sewer right-of-way would eat up a good chunk of the houses' front yards.
I hope this happens. That would make a great improvement.
The Veterans Memorial Bridge in south Omaha will be closed to semis and other heavy trucks starting Wednesday.
The Nebraska Department of Roads is setting a 5-ton weight limit on the bridge because of deterioration. Cars, pickups and SUVs will be allowed on the bridge.
Tim Weander of the Department of Roads said the bridge's condition does not present an immediate danger, but the state wants to keep heavy trucks off it to reduce wear and tear, he said.
Construction of a new bridge is planned, but until the new span opens in summer 2010, heavy trucks will have to look for other ways to cross the Missouri River. The closest alternate route is the Interstate 80 bridge.
The state closed the 70-year-old Veterans Memorial Bridge to all traffic for several days last fall after structural problems were discovered. The bridge was reopened after repairs were made.
This is a separate but yet connected project.  It was approved and funded separately and managed with separate meetings.  The tie in is that unless lt  is done the new bridge cannot be built as designed.  The current access into the industrial area is off of 13th on J and this street will be closed at the bottom of the hill to allow for the new bridge construction and supports.  The streets and houses will end up being on a cul da sac rather than a through street with a lot of traffic.  The dirt work and the concrete supports for the new Gibson road access are complete or nearly complete.  I would guess that the spans for this will be placed early in the spring.  There will be two lanes up the new access and one coming down.  Currently there are many lengthy delays at the bottom of J where the Gibson road intersection is that cause traffic to back up all the way onto 13th street at times.  This is also a issue for emerg vehicle access into the industry area when a train can be blocking the road for up to 30 minutes and there is no other way in.
That seems like such a big access bridge that is only going to serve those businesses down along the river.
"The right to have access to every building in the city by private motorcar in an age when everyone possesses such a vehicle is actually the right to destroy the city."
Lewis Mumford, The Highway and the City, 1963
StreetsOfOmaha wrote:That seems like such a big access bridge that is only going to serve those businesses down along the river.
Most people have no idea how much traffic is in and out of this area. Â I have seen the current RR crossing blocked by trains on the only way in and out and seen cars / trucks backed up to get into the area from the tracks, up the hill and backed up on 13th street for one to two blocks in each direction. Â This is not a once in a blue moon occurrence either. Â The access road will be one lane down the hill and two coming up. Â With the waster treatment plant, the PCS Box Plant, Syngetna Ag chemicals, all the inbound and outbound freight from the rail yard, the new car's that are received on rail and distributed from here and another plant to the S. that I cannot think of the name of I would not be surprised if the truck count was over 1000 a day at times. Â Then there is all the small vehicle traffic on top of that. Â Unless you live or work in the area one thing that I think would surprise you by itself is the number of wast sludge trucks that go to the treatment plant to unload in a days time from pumping waste around the area be it septic systems or "other" Â This is not oversized.
WOWT Ch 6 must be doing a story on the bridge replacement or on a tie in to the bridge collapse in Minn, Or both. Â When I drove by the 13th St and HWY 275 intersection twice about 30 min apart at noon today WOWT had a vehicular there, camera set up, and a reporter interviewing someone on one pass by. Â Tune in if you are interested.
Wow, I obviously haven't been following this thing too closely. I didn't know there was going to be a Gibson viaduct - that will be nice to have to go to the BNSF yard and should be a good place to watch trains in addition to the new L Street bridge, that is if they have pedestrian access.
Zephyr wrote:Wow, I obviously haven't been following this thing too closely. I didn't know there was going to be a Gibson viaduct - that will be nice to have to go to the BNSF yard and should be a good place to watch trains in addition to the new L Street bridge, that is if they have pedestrian access.
They have been pout concrete for a few weeks. Â From the looks of it there will be a walking / bike access on the Gibson RR Overpass. Â On the "river" side there is a 6 -8 foot wide pour that is at the curb height on the street. Â Every so fare there is a outpour where I assume the lighting will be "planted".
The deck has been poured for a while. Â The approach off of 13th street and on the bottom onto Gibson have some work to be done yet. Â They are forming and pouring the side guards this week. Â They actually got a fair amount of work done over the weekend. Â Yesterday there were some posts going up for the "cage" on the walking / biking lane. Â It has been stated that it will be open by mid to late October. Â I think there is a shot of making that with the main work to achieve this being on the approaches. Â The elevation change from the new deck to the existing 13th street surface is fairly dramatic. Â It will be interesting to see how this comes together.
I would guess that this was more of an inspection than a repair event, although to restate, that is a guess. Â I drive by there daily and I sure didn't see much activity going on on or under the bridge that was not directly tied to the new construction. Â In fact I was wondering, watching this, if they were going to do anything to the bridge.
No, it was maintenance that was required to keep the bridge open for another 18 months, as well as an inspection event. Not sure what the maintenance/repairs were, but I would imagine they're dealing with corrosion and fatigue issues.
Last edited by icejammer on Thu Oct 04, 2007 8:26 am, edited 1 time in total.
"Destiny is not a matter of chance, it is a matter of choice; it is not a thing to be waited for, it is a thing to be achieved."
The RR Overpass road for access form 13th street to Gibson Road will open Tomorrow (10/18/2007). Â This is the one Brad has a photo of above. Â The city provided notice to all the businesses in the area today. Â They stripped to road yesterday, along with getting the lights on. Â It will be nice to not have to sit and wait for a train to pass any more, sometimes up to an hour ( for real) and often for 20 - 30 minutes.
Now one with the true start of the S. Omaha Bridge work.
I got to see this bridge when I was passing through town on Amtrak last month. Â Next time I am visiting, I will definitely check this bridge out to do some train spotting!
icejammer wrote:No, it was maintenance that was required to keep the bridge open for another 18 months, as well as an inspection event. Not sure what the maintenance/repairs were, but I would imagine they're dealing with corrosion and fatigue issues.
At this point I will have to be suspect of the stated bridge outage with even more ???? than I had when i was closed. Â Someone is going to have to show me some evidence that they did ANYTHING on the bridge while it was closed. Â My GUESS is that it was closed as more of a convienance for the work that was / is going on on 13th street so that the part that was crossing over HY275 would not have to be split in phases. Â They did work on this while the bridge was closed. Â
To restate what I said before, while this bridge was closed I was near it probably 6 out of every seven days and I never saw any work taking place on the bridge and I was watching to see what they would be doing. Â What adds to my suspicions is that now that all this "work" is done and the bridge is open they HAVE been working on it most of this week. Â The bridge has had one lane closed and traffic stopped a lot this week and they have had a bucket truck cantilevered around working on and under the bridge. Â I am glade thy are keeping an eye on it and doing what is necessary but I have issue with a stated objective that closes it for three weeks and the observed facts seen to indicate that they did differently.
Well today I drove the Old bridge and saw that they were ready to install the first spans between to piers that are completed on the Iowa side. Â I would guess from what I saw that they have had better days on this project. Â Took these shots while drive so excuse the lack of quality.
From the looks of things to me they had the first three spans staged on the highway and when bringing the first one in to pick the temporary road bed that was in place was not solid enough. Â That, in combination with the turn that they had to make was too much. It looks like it might have twisted and then rolled. Â I would imaging that there were flagmen watching to guide the truck in and hopefully no one got hurt. Â Once that got away there would not be much time to get out of the way. Â Bet the job foremen and engineer in charge are answering a few questions.
For the record NEBUGEATER does not equal BUGEATER !!!!!!!
WOWT.com wrote:Despite weather delays in the spring, the $80 million Omaha Veterans Memorial Bridge project is on schedule. "We're about year into it right now,” says Rich Zelensky of the Nebraska Department of Roads which is overseeing the construction of a new bridge, complete with a bike trail connecting Omaha and Council Bluffs.
The old bridge that has faithfully served the metro since 1936 will close for good next September and begin coming down. By June 2010 the new Omaha Veterans Memorial Bridge opens reuniting Omaha and Council Bluffs.
It looks like the old bridge is back open again for its last run. Â I believe I have hard that in 8 months or so it will be closed for good so that the span connecting into 13th street from the new bridge can be completed.
OMAHA, Neb. -- The Veterans Memorial Bridge in south Omaha has reopened after more than two months of repair work, according to the Nebraska Department of Roads.
Crews closed the bridge in July for pavement construction.
The bridge spans the Missouri River off of 13th Street in Omaha. Â
A 5-ton vehicle weight restriction is in effect and an 8-feet vehicle height restriction still applies
For the record NEBUGEATER does not equal BUGEATER !!!!!!!
