Skip to main content

VIDEO: Pittsburgh says goodbye to 108-year-old Hulton Bridge

January 27, 2016
It took 500 explosive charges to bring down a 108-year-old truss bridge in the US city of Pittsburgh and crews had three days to clear up the debris, according to local news stations.

The blasts dropped the spans of 407m-long Jonathon Hulton Bridge directly into the Allegheny River. It was the first major bridge designed by Allegheny County in the state of Pennsylvania and connected the eastern Pittsburgh city suburbs of Oakmont and Harmarville.

A new steel girder bridge, directly beside it, opened to traffic in October. It has four 3.35m-wide vehicle lanes - two in each direction – and a 1.23m wide median. There are 1.8m shoulders on each side of the road and a sidewalk on the downstream side of the bridge.

Design of the new bridge was by 5412 Gannett Fleming and the contractor was Brayman Construction. Construction management and inspection was by SAI Consulting Engineers and CDR Maguire.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Tensar’s route to Euro 2012
    July 20, 2012
    Tensar International’s TriAx design solution has been used in the sub-base for the 17.9km Gdansk bypass in Poland. TriAx is said to be helping to combat the differential settlement across the poor soil of the Wistula river delta and to minimise frost heave caused by Poland’s severe winters. TriAx is said to be helping to combat the differential settlement across the poor soil of the Wistula river delta and to minimise frost heave caused by Poland’s severe winters.
  • State of the art tunnel a conservation triumph
    May 2, 2012
    The opening of a 1.8km tunnel in southern England is designed to ease traffic bottlenecks in an environmentally sensitive area. Patrick Smith reports
  • State of the art tunnel a conservation triumph
    February 28, 2012
    The opening of a 1.8km tunnel in southern England is designed to ease traffic bottlenecks in an environmentally sensitive area. Patrick Smith reports
  • More Norway wooden bridges to open
    February 6, 2023
    Statens Vegvesen is working to solve the challenges related to the bridges that are still closed after the collapse of a bridge in Tretten last August.