I know you're thinking "Toledo? Isn't that a quaker town in Ohio somewhere?". But seriously, on my way back from Cleveland a couple of weeks ago, I decided to drive back home the long way and went through Toledo...where I saw probably the most amazing highway project I have seen in a very long time.

 

The I-280 Maumee River Bridge Crossing project. It's amazing just how they are doing this and I feel is going to be a blueprint to a lot of the I-75 rebuilds through Dayton and Cinci in a few years.

 

Check out the their website...

http://www.lookuptoledo.org/servlet/com.hntb.toledo.servlets.NewsManagement?option=3

 

and these webshots...you'll be amazed.

http://www.dot.state.oh.us/dist2/webcams/mrc/MRCwebcams.htm

wow

Holy crap! I didn't know much about the project except that a few people died in that accident.

 

Nice find.

Why don't we have any Toldeo people on here? Not one...

 

When I see a Toledo forumer I am going to scream, "HOLY TOLEDO"

 

thats quite impressive

C-Dawg Njaim <--- is from Toledo, but hasnt contributed at all to the forum......yet(hopefully). But he hasnt visited since July 8th :(

It doesnt look too bad. Different though.

pretty, though it would probably look better if toledo had a skyline. maybe circleville or chillicothe will get one for the scioto next. lol I'm just playin my toledo freinds :D

^ Guys tell me you wouldn't drool over this to replace the Brent Spence?

Isn't the US 22 bridge between Weirton WVa and Stubenville set up like the proposed I-280 bridge?

this is a really lovely bridge

 

definately has a landmark quality to it. thumbs up to toledo on this one

Isn't the US 22 bridge between Weirton WVa and Stubenville set up like the proposed I-280 bridge?

 

I believe it's similar. That was the first cable-stayed bridge I saw, and it made quite an impression on me. I was on my way to Harrisburg from Indianapolis, got a late start, and after a harried night-time drive across Ohio on I-70, stopped in Steubenville to get some sleep. I headed out in the morning, and first caught sight of that bridge gleaming in the morning sun. It made quite a contrast with the grit, dust and rust of Steubenville! I think that was about 1991, and the bridge looked pretty new.

 

If my memory is correct, though, the bridge at Steubenville is somewhat different from the proposed I-280 bridge. Doesn't the one at Steubenville have a pylon that ascends on both sides of the roadway and then comes together at the top? I have a picture somewhere, but I'm too tired :sleep: tonight to look for it.

Toledo's skyline is more spread out (seeing how all the tallest buildings are in a row) while Dayton's is more "dense." It's all what you prefer; I prefer Dayton's personally.

This bridge is hot...a great addition to Toledo.

 

I think the first cable-stayed bridge lI saw was the one across the Ohio @ Huntington WVA. Theres another brand new one, also across the Ohio, at Owensboro, KY.

whoa...cool.

i really like the suspension one too

Isn't the US 22 bridge between Weirton WVa and Stubenville set up like the proposed I-280 bridge?

 

I was just on that bridge this past weekend. As far as I know, that's the first cable-stayed bridge I've actually seen. It was quite impressive. After seeing the US 22 bridge, I can't wait to see the one in Toledo when it is completed. Though the design of Toledo's bridge is different, I'm sure it will be quite a remarkable structure.

This bridge will now be known as the Veterans' Glass City Skyway.  Here's an update from the 12/7/04 Toledo Blade:

 

Bridge over the Maumee taking shape

Center pylon is rising to windy, chilly heights

By DAVID PATCH

BLADE STAFF WRITER

 

Even on a calm day on the ground, it's usually windy 200 feet up.  Just ask Gene Phelps.  As the center pylon for the I-280 Maumee River Crossing project has risen above the Maumee's waters, so has Mr. Phelps' workplace.  As one of several surveyors on the project, it's his job to make sure every part of the tower, which eventually will stand 400 feet above the river, is exactly where it should be.

 

Construction of the $220 million bridge's main roadway spans was halted by the Feb. 16 collapse of one of two massive, Italian-made truss cranes that killed four ironworkers and injured two other workers and two operating engineers.  Within hours after work was finally cleared to resume again Oct. 23 using the second truss crane, an electrical wiring problem apparently resulted in one of the support legs snapping off its cable just behind workers in a nearby bucket crane.  Work was again halted.

 

FULL ARTICLE: http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20041207/NEWS11/412070318

 

 

 

 

Maysville's new bridge (October 2000) is a cable stay (image horked from here):

 

...and the Natcher Bridge in Owensboro, KY (October 2002) is as well (image horked from here):

C-Dawg njaim, correct me if I am wrong, but isn't owens corning thinking about moving out toward maumee.  If so, their headquarters on the river would make a great convention center.

I agree with Monte regarding the I-75 replacement bridge, it is not too soon to start the wheels turning among the powers that be (USDOT, ODOT, KDOT, OKI, City of Cincy, Covington, and anyone else.  The new bridge should be a rock star killer with some real punch.  We do not need another Taylor-Southgate bridge (aka the one next to USBank Arena and Newport Aquarium.  That thing is god awful industrial.  There was another bridge design that was totally cool, but it cost like $3-4 million more (which only equated to 5-10%), and then they picked grey as a color WTF!  Two quotes I specifically remember when that bridge was under study were: "It needs to be low and unobtrusive so as not to block the view of downtown" and "we chose grey because it was the least objectionable color".  Two things:  First, how about making the bridge part of the skyline and something you want to look at versus look past.  Second, have some balls and pick a color other than grey!  The yellow I-471 bridge and the Purple People Bridge, like the colors or not, add some much needed pizzazz to the city view.

 

Enough ranting though....

 

^ Taylor Southgate is best described as "utilitarian drab".  It's just ugly and uninspired.  Even the Central Bridge had 1000 times more character.

 

I agree that the bridge should have been made to add to the skyline, rather than just blend in.

that bridge is just fantastic looking. very striking and cool. much much better than the other city examples.

 

the color lighted central pylon reminds me of the photos of the brand new mini streetscape lighted posts on east fourth street around the house of blues in downtown cleveland that i've seen.

 

re the lighting of the bridge -- the empire state building uses lighting just like that for events, holidays and the weather. they have to turn it off late at night so birds dont fly into it! --- it's as striking a nightly beacon to the big city as i'm sure this bridge will be to good old toledo.

 

 

 

 

An article from the 1/15/05 Toledo Blade:

 

MAUMEE CROSSING CONSTRUCTION

Work on main span will begin in spring

Part of I-280 to close beginning in May

By DAVID PATCH

BLADE STAFF WRITER

 

Main-span assembly of the new I-280 bridge over the Maumee River will begin this spring using three trusses, including one that will use components from a gantry crane previously banished from the project, the Ohio Department of Transportation and its contractor announced yesterday.

 

The construction will close I-280 to through traffic for seven months, starting in May.  But that will be at least five months faster than if contractor Fru-Con Construction Corp. of Ballwin, Mo., were to use just two trusses instead of three, Rich Martinko, an ODOT assistant director in charge of the $220 million project, said during a news conference yesterday.

 

The plan is intended to enable Fru-Con to finish construction on time, in October, 2006, despite two accidents that have put main-span construction on hold for 11 months and counting.  The first accident, a Feb. 16 collapse of a horizontal truss crane, killed four construction workers and injured four more.

 

FULL ARTICLE: http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050115/NEWS11/501150349

 

how the hell did i miss the original thread?

 

I have been driving that stretch of freeway for over 5 years, and i think its been under construction for all five........

I'm doing what I can to promote a similar bridge for the Inner Belt's Cuyahoga Valley crossing in downtown Cleveland. In Brataslava, in the old Czechoslovakia, they put a restaurant at the top of their new cable-stayed bridge!

 

KJP

i just re-read the article........seven months......pooo

bump for some toledo love

 

oh, and some more webcams of the area,

 

http://www.dot.state.oh.us/dist2/webcams/mrc/MRCwebcams.htm

Yay!

 

Pretty dreary looking day up in T-town.

I don't understand the fascination surrounding cable-stayed bridges.  They've been around for 50+ years yet are perpetually perceived as being "cutting edge", "progressive", and "thinking outside the box".  Come on.  In Maysville the aesthetic superiority of traditional suspension bridge design is self-evident in a nearly side-by-side comparison (the two are slightly out of sight of one another, if I remember correctly), meanwhile the new Leonard P. Zakim Bunker Hill Memorial Bridge in Boston is a fop.  The droop of a traditional suspension bridge's cables from its steel or brick towers, along with its overall shape and character, are on some subconscious level homologous to natural forms in a way that that the fanning of stays from a concrete pylon are not. 

 

 

From the 5/31/05 Toledo Blade:

 

PHOTO: A bridge deck segment is placed on a pier near the Greenbelt Parkway last week. The beginning of construction of the main spans in North Toledo has been postponed until mid-July.  ( THE BLADE/HERRAL LONG )

 

VETERANS' GLASS CITY SKYWAY

I-280 shutdown could be pushed into spring '06

By DAVID PATCH

BLADE STAFF WRITER

 

Construction of the Veterans' Glass City Skyway main spans on the East Toledo side is likely to resume in about two weeks, but work on the North Toledo side has been pushed back until mid-July, according to a spokesman for the Ohio Department of Transportation.  The delay in beginning the North Toledo construction could mean that a planned seven-month shutdown of I-280 between Greenbelt Parkway and Summit Street will have to be split into two sections, if winter conditions force a suspension of work, ODOT spokesman Joe Rutherford said.

 

But officials had no intention of rushing preparations for the North Toledo construction just to save the schedule, he said.  "Commissioning of the trusses is taking a little longer than we expected," Mr. Rutherford said.  "In light of the past, we're moving very cautiously and very conservatively." 

 

"The past" is the Feb. 16, 2004, truss crane collapse on the East Toledo side of the Maumee River that killed four workers and injured four others, halting the bridge's mainline construction.

 

FULL ARTICLE: http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050531/NEWS11/505310315/-1/NEWS

 

From the 6/9/05 Toledo Blade:

 

Skyway work will shut part of I-280

Southbound lanes to close at Front St.

By DAVID PATCH

BLADE STAFF WRITER

 

Southbound I-280 is scheduled to close at Front Street at 7 a.m. Monday so work can resume on the East Toledo approach of the Veterans' Glass City Skyway, an ODOT spokesman said yesterday.

 

At least for the time being, the southbound lanes will remain open to local traffic on either side of the Front interchange. That could change if too many motorists ignore the detour for through traffic, said Joe Rutherford, of the Ohio Department of Transportation's district office in Bowling Green.

 

"We expect that initially, there will be some delays at Front Street, there will be some motorist confusion" because some drivers will ignore advance warnings and see how far they can go on I-280 before being forced to exit, Mr. Rutherford said.

 

FULL ARTICLE: http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050609/NEWS11/506090349/-1/NEWS

 

An update from the 6/24/05 Toledo Blade:

 

Heavily modified crane resumes work on I-280 project

By DAVID PATCH

BLADE STAFF WRITER

 

For the first time since a fatal crane collapse 16 months ago, Fru-Con Construction crews hoisted segments for a main line approach span of the new I-280 Maumee River bridge.  The heavily modified twin of the crane that collapsed Feb. 16, 2004, did the lifting yesterday for what will become the 12th approach span for the southbound lanes in East Toledo. 

 

By the end of the workday yesterday, four segments were hanging from the truss, and more are to be raised today.  Once all the span's segments are in place, load tests will be performed on the crane before it is certified for continued use, said Joe Rutherford, an Ohio Department of Transportation spokesman.  The test results will determine how quickly work proceeds on additional spans, he added.

 

FULL ARTICLE: http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050624/NEWS11/506240340/-1/NEWS

 

From the 10/17/05 Toledo Blade:

 

PHOTO: Work begins today to add three concrete pieces to the top of the towering central support for the I-280 Veterans' Glass City Skyway.  ( THE BLADE/LORI KING )

 

I-280 bridge workers to top it off

Ceremony marks crowning of the 400-foot center pylon

By DAVID PATCH

BLADE STAFF WRITER

 

From a caisson hole 32 feet below the Maumee River's bed, ironworkers, carpenters, concrete masons, and other workers during the past 39 months have raised a tower to nearly 400 feet above the water.  Beginning today, the tower's apex will be added: three precast concrete pieces that together will form the pyramid-like top of the pylon that soon will hold up the cable stays for the I-280 Veterans' Glass City Skyway bridge.

 

A ceremony at the construction site will mark the occasion this morning, though Mike Gramza, a project manager for the Ohio Department of Transportation, said the last of the three pieces probably won't be hoisted up to the tower's top for a day or two.  While several future events, including completion of the first main span over the Maumee's shipping channel and the first lighting of the pylon's inlaid glass panels, will be more spectacular, "this is a substantial milestone," Mr. Gramza said. 

 

Of the project's $220 million cost, the pylon represents about $27 million, ODOT figures show.

 

FULL ARTICLE: http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051017/NEWS11/510170314/-1/NEWS

 

From the 10/18/05 Toledo Blade:

 

PHOTO: At the Veterans' Glass City Skyway, iron worker Chris Kolbe attaches chains to a bridge pylon cap so a crane operator can lift it into place.  ( THE BLADE/ANDY MORRISON )

 

PHOTO: Workers position a pylon cap for the $220 million bridge.  ( THE BLADE/ANDY MORRISON )

 

Crowning of Skyway signals start of big detour

Closing of I-280 section might last for 7 months

By DAVID PATCH

BLADE STAFF WRITER

 

A day after the Veterans Glass City Skyway's main tower was "topped off" during a ceremony, the longest detour associated with the $220 million bridge project will begin today.  Beginning at 7 a.m., I-280 is to be closed for up to seven months between Greenbelt Parkway and Summit Street while the southbound spans for the bridge's North Toledo approach viaduct are assembled.

 

As occurred with I-280 closings in East Tole-do during the summer, through traffic will be detoured via I-75 and State Rt. 795.  But as long as traffic problems don't arise, local motorists will be allowed to keep using the freeway between I-75 and Greenbelt and south of Summit.

 

FULL ARTICLE: http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051018/NEWS11/510180317/-1/NEWS

 

Is it just me or do those precast concrete bridge sections that look like an upside down pizza hut roof, resemble the bridge ramps on either side of Ft. Washington Way? Or maybe just the east side near Cincy's newest skyline addition?

^Uhhh.  The second I saw the computer rendering of those damn things back in 1997 or 98 I just couldn't believe someone even thought of that idea, let alone it being approved.  To have done the FWW trench in an art deco style, taking cues from Columbia parkway, the viaducts, etc., would have been *awesome* and they blew it.   

^Hopefully the banks will cover it over and it will not matter.

It's not really construction-related, but I thought it deserved to be mentioned at least.  Exponent, of Menlo Park, CA, has been hired to assist in the investigation of the deadly crane collapse in early 2004.  Here's the story from the 11/8/05 Toledo Blade:[/i]

 

http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051108/NEWS11/511080348

 

From the 11/11/05 Toledo Blade:

 

PHOTO: Sara Zura talks to engineers David Sarne and Zion Zachoot halfway to the top of the bridge's main pylon. Progress is evident from the top of the I-280 bridge's main pylon.  ( THE BLADE/JEREMY WADSWORTH )

 

PHOTO: Work is under way at the top of the Veterans' Glass City Skyway's main pylon, 390 feet up.  ( THE BLADE/JEREMY WADSWORTH )

 

VETERANS' GLASS CITY SKYWAY

Bridge crews enjoy work site with view

Main pylon is focal point for builders

By DAVID PATCH

BLADE STAFF WRITER

 

The views Pete McGarey sees from his workplace are not unlike those available from the top floors of Toledo's tallest buildings - a panorama of the city, with landmarks like Maumee's grain elevators and the Fermi and Davis-Besse nuclear power plants off in the distance and freighters plying Lake Erie. 

 

Unlike office workers, however, all Mr. McGarey has to do to take it all in is turn around.  The North Toledoan is a carpenter working on the Veterans' Glass City Skyway project.  Lately his work has taken him to the top of the bridge's main pylon, 390 feet above the Maumee River, to build the forms for that structure's finishing concrete touches.

 

Besides looking at the city and its surroundings, the workers also have an aerial view of the $220 million bridge project as it progresses.  Right now, two gantry truss cranes are in use to assemble precast concrete segments for the structure's North Toledo and East Toledo approach viaducts, while an "underslung" truss and ground-based cranes are at work building the south half of the main river span.

 

FULL ARTICLE: http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051111/NEWS11/511110440/-1/NEWS

 

From the 11/17/05 Toledo Blade:

 

Finalists selected for I-280 memorial 3 artists to take input from public

 

Three artists who have been chosen as finalists to develop proposals for a construction workers memorial at the I-280 Maumee River bridge project are to make presentations during a public meeting tonight.

 

The Tribute Committee of the Veterans' Glass City Skyway Task Force, a citizens' advisory board, will conduct the meeting in the Grand Lobby of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Plaza - the former concourse of Toledo's passenger-train station - starting at 6:30 p.m. and running until about 8.

 

The monument will honor those killed and injured in the $220 million construction project, and recognize all who have worked on the bridge that is fast becoming a Toledo landmark.

 

FULL ARTICLE: http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051117/NEWS08/511170340/-1/NEWS

 

From the 11/21/05 Toledo Blade:

 

PHOTO: Support frames for ramps on the new I-280 bridge had to be redesigned, slowing construction for a month.  ( THE BLADE/LUKE BLACK )

 

Redesign of I-280 bridge frame slows construction

Work resumes after month-long delay

By DAVID PATCH

BLADE STAFF WRITER

 

Redesigning a special frame needed to stabilize pier-top bridge segments during a tricky work phase is the reason construction of the East Toledo approach to the Veterans' Glass City Skyway was suspended for more than a month, an Ohio Department of Transportation official said late last week.

 

Work resumed Friday, and Jeff Baker, ODOT's project manager, said work would have resumed on the $220 million cable-stayed I-280 bridge over the Maumee River earlier in the week if not for high wind that buffeted the area.

 

The delay has kept lanes and ramps on Front Street closed near I-280 weeks past original mid-October reopening dates.  The transportation department now does not expect the first reopening until mid-December.

 

FULL ARTICLE: http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051121/NEWS11/511210330/-1/NEWS

 

^Hopefully the banks will cover it over and it will not matter.

 

No, those two bridges are outside of the area that is planned to be covered.  We're stuck with them for 40 or 50 years unless they decide to redo that whole area when the deck is built. 

^Yes the ramps won't be redone, but the trench is proposed to be covered right? I have mixed feelings on that, especially with those neat faux suspension bridges which will have to be done away with.

From the 1/7/06 Toledo Blade:

 

MAP

 

CAPSULE: Status of the Skyway

 

VETERANS' GLASS CITY SKYWAY

Skyway firm seeks longer I-280 closing; span may not open until 2007

By DAVID PATCH

BLADE STAFF WRITER

 

The Veterans’ Glass City Skyway won’t be finished until sometime next year unless state officials agree to allow I-280 to be closed in North Toledo beyond a current seven-month period ending in May, according to ODOT officials.  Fru-Con Construction Co., the $220 million bridge project’s general contractor based in Ballwin, Mo., had hoped to recover some of the time lost to a fatal gantry crane collapse in 2004 by bringing in two other gantries to help finish construction.

 

But the replacement equipment’s assembly and testing took months longer than anticipated and operations have been slower than officials hoped.  The result is that the soonest the new bridge could open, even partially, is “by the end of the year,” said Mike Gramza, the project manager for the Ohio Department of Transportation.

 

FULL ARTICLE: http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060107/NEWS11/60107004/-1/RSS

 

http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060109/NEWS11/601090313/-1/NEWS

-- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Article published January 9, 2006

 

ODOT has ideas for a major hub

It would build I-475 ramps west of Upton, close others

 

By DAVID PATCH

BLADE STAFF WRITER

 

An interchange on I-475 at a new road west of Upton Avenue and elimination of the Berdan Avenue ramps on I-75 are main features of a "preferred alternative" the Ohio Department of Transportation has chosen for rebuilding the I-75/I-475 junction in central Toledo.

 

Unlike other options state officials considered, the plan does not involve building service roads along I-475 between Upton and Douglas Road.

 

Nor is a new service road proposed linking Berdan with the Willys Parkway interchange on I-75, as had been proposed in previous versions of the plan. Instead, Jeep Parkway could be realigned to provide a better link between Berdan and Willys than it currently offers, said Mike Ligibel, the planning administrator at ODOT's district office in Bowling Green.

 

More at link above:

2007 a possibility? ouch.

^Yes the ramps won't be redone, but the trench is proposed to be covered right?

 

No, not the entire trench.  Piles were driven halfway between the Main & Walnut St. overpasses and halfway between the Plum & Elm bridges.  This leaves a 150ft gap between the end of the tunnel roof and these two overpasses. 

 

And add to my list of lame cable-stayed bridges this one in Mobile, Alabama:

 

but the one in mobile has such lovely surroundings!

 

its a sad day when toledo > mobile

God, you could have told me that that was Maysville, Ky and I would have believed you.