On Tuesday, May 29, the final section of the final deck of the Leonard P. Zakim Bunker Hill Bridge was put in place shortly after 2 p.m. to the cheers of local workers and officials.
Kiewit Construction Inc. from Omaha, NE, did the actual placement of the final deck.
The bridge, which spans Boston’s Charles River, is one of the key elements of the “Big Dig” project in Boston, MA.
Courtney Schmidt, an official with the “Big Dig” project said, “The construction of the bridge was free of delays and the only physical problem was that a month or so ago we had some very warm days and that might have caused some mild warping but the heat wave was short lived and all we had to do was sprinkle the section with water.”
In fact, the decking of the Zakim Bridge, a $14-million project, is a year and a half ahead of schedule.
Schmidt also pointed out that the work involved in placing the final section of the final deck of the bridge, a $13-thousand project, was done entirely by workers from the local neighborhood.
The striking cable-stayed bridge is scheduled to be completed later this summer and will open to traffic in November 2002, upon completion of the I-93 Northbound tunnel sections.
A Landmark Bridge in a Historic Project
With its graceful lines and 270-ft. (82.3 m) towers, the Leonard P. Zakim Bunker Hill Bridge will be a symbolic landmark fusing Boston’s future with its historic past. Swiss bridge designer Christian Menn conceived the bridge to reflect, with its inverted Y-shaped towers, the shape of the Bunker Hill Monument in neighboring Charlestown.
The bridge is 1,457 ft. (444 m) long and emerges from the underground Central Artery near the Fleet Center at Causeway Street, crossing the river to make connections with both I-93 and Route 1.
The bridge will carry 10 lanes of traffic — eight lanes passing through the legs of the twin towers and two cantilevered on the east side. The cantilever portion, which will accommodate northbound traffic from the Sumner Tunnel and the North End, will provide the bridge’s unique, asymmetrical design.
Girders and two planes of cables will support the bridge’s 745-ft. (227 m) long, 183-ft. (56 m) wide main span. Steel floor beams will support the main span and extend out to support the cantilevered lanes.
The back spans on the land side of the towers—which measure 295 ft. (90 m) on the downtown side and 420 ft. (128 m) on the Charlestown side — is supported by a single plane of cables. Using a one-plane cable design on the south back span will allow traffic flow to continue on the existing I-93 connection to Leverett Circle during construction.
The new Leonard P. Zakim Bunker Hill Bridge will be the only one of its kind ever built. In addition to being the widest cable-stayed bridge in the world, the bridge will be the first “hybrid” cable-stayed bridge in the United States, using both steel and concrete in its frame. The main span will consist of a steel box girder and steel floor beams, while the back spans will contain post-tensioned concrete.
The bridge has been built within a busy transportation corridor that already houses the Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority’s (MBTA) Commuter Rail and Orange Line. To avoid impact to the Orange Line and its ventilation building, the legs of the bridge’s concrete towers are inverted at a 55-degree angle and straddle the MBTA tracks as they surface from the Orange Line tunnel in Charlestown.
The only controversy surrounding the Zakim Bridge was its naming. Leonard Zakim (for whom the bridge is named) was not a resident of the neighborhood where the bridge is located.
A Public Spectacle
The Massachusetts Turnpike Authority and The Central Artery/Tunnel Project recently announced that on Sunday, August 26, the Leonard P. Zakim Bunker Hill Bridge will be the site of a grand public event.
The public is invited to visit the bridge on Sunday, Aug. 26 between 11 a.m. and 4 p.m.
“Building upon the great success of our First Night event, when 25,000 people went underneath Atlantic Avenue to view 10 lanes of future traffic now in place, the public will have an opportunity like never before to experience this beautiful cable-stayed bridge spanning the Charles River,” said J. Richard Capka, chief executive officer, Massachusetts Turnpike Authority.
“We want to expand on our previous efforts to educate as many taxpayers as possible,” said Michael P. Lewis, project director. “August 26 will represent another great opportunity to experience this project firsthand. We look forward to seeing lots of interested people and we hope they bring their cameras.”
The Central Artery/Tunnel Project is owned and managed by the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority (MTA) and will become the Metropolitan Highway System (MHS).
For more information, visit www.bigdig.com.
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