Skip to main content

Gateway bridge topped off, nearly ready for traffic

Date Posted: September 2 2005

Michigan's long history of bridge construction added another chapter on July 27, with the topping-off of the new I-94 "Gateway Bridge" in Taylor.

The blue "modified tied-arch" spans - the first of their kind in Michigan - will carry freeway traffic over Telegraph Road. The unique, matching east-west 246-foot-long spans are intended to act as a gateway for Metro Airport travelers headed for Detroit.

When we reported in June on the completion of the first span's steel, Whaley Steel general foreman Jim Davenport said he expected the second bridge to go up quicker. It did, shaving about 10 days off the first 10-week timeframe. CA Hull was general contractor on the project; Whaley was the steel erector.

"We learned a lot from the first bridge, and everything came together perfectly on the second," Davenport said. After the concrete road surface is put into place, iron workers planned to return to adjust the tension on the vertical cables.

The $14 million Gateway project will cost about 15 percent more than a regular overpass, but the cost is being made up by grants and local communities that agreed to help foot the cost to make the span something special.

The 110-foot-tall arch sections are comprised of hollow boxes of steel, welded shut and pressurized to keep out moisture - and hopefully rust. The heaviest section of steel is 142,000 lbs.

As work was nearing an end on the superstructure, Whaley Steel rodbusters were busy preparing for the installation of the road surface. Rodbuster foreman Lee Bushey said the iron is a little thicker than in most road-beds, to provide a little more support for the concrete. "The installation has gone really well," he said.

Michigan Department of Transportation spokesman Rob Morosi said last week that construction is moving quickly: the westbound lanes should open by early-to-mid-September. 

IRON WORKERS and rodbusters from Local 25 atop the Gateway Bridge deck, when it was topped out. They worked for Whaley Steel on the project.