Construction Highlights

The Gerald Desmond Bridge Replacement Project is a “design-build” project. This method combines project design and construction into one contract, as opposed to the standard process done in three stages: design, bid, build. By being more efficient, design-build projects have the potential to be built faster, and at a lower cost, than traditional construction projects.

The new bridge has a cable-stayed design. With 205 feet of clearance over the water, the new bridge is high enough to accommodate newer generations of the most efficient cargo ships. With three lanes in each direction plus safety lanes, it is wider and better able to serve the current 68,000 vehicle trips that travel over the current bridge each day, which equals about 18 million trips a year.

Quick facts on the Bridge Project:

• Height of Towers (2): 515 feet



• Support Columns: Approximately 100 combined for east, west approach spans



• Foundations: 352 below-ground piles supporting the above-ground columns



• Total Length: Approximately 8,800 feet, including 2,000 feet for cable-stayed span



• Cables: 40 for each tower. Each cable consists of 30-80 strands, depending on cable location. The longest cable on the bridge is 573 feet. If all the strands were laid end-to-end, they would add up to 1.7 million feet in length.



• Steel: 18 million pounds of structural steel, 75 million pounds of rebar (approx.)



• Concrete: 300,000 cubic yards (approx.)

The new bridge is the second-tallest cable-stayed bridge in the U.S. with the highest vertical clearance of any cable-stayed bridge in the U.S.