Specifications on the Bridge Project and its cable-stayed design.
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:
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.