2010 I-280 Glass City Skyway Bridge over Maumee River in Toledo, OH

(Bridge Hunter; John A. Weeks III; Satellite)

(Update: RoadTraffic-Technology article)

ODOT-VGCS

1 of 7 photos posted by Andrew Dean Detroit
Algoma Conveyor heading into Toledo with assistance from Tug Michigan and Cleveland.
Andrew Dean Detroit shared

ODOT-home
Bridge design and rendering by Figg Engineering Group.

The Maumee River Crossing in Toledo is now two different bridges. The first bridge was built in 1956 and carried I-280 over the Maumee River, but it had a movable span. Because of three major grain elevators upriver from this bridge (ADM, Cargill, and Adnersons), the movable span is still opened in the 21st Century. So in 2007, ODOT opened a cable-stayed bridge to carry I-280 over the Maumee River. Because the new bridge has long approaches to achieve the needed height above the river, the old bridge has been refurbished to carry local traffic and a trail. The old bridge has been renamed the Governor Craig Bridge and the new one is called the Glass City Veteran's Skyway. The $237m bridge is over 8,800' long to achieve the needed clearance over the river. [IronWorkersLocal55] The roadway is 130' high near the center of the river [ODOT-overview] to provide at least 120' of clearance with at least a 400' shipping channel. It carries six lanes of traffic with full shoulders. [ODOT-history]

Wesley Ryan posted
SWV Blacky upriver on the Maumee

DLZ

The 3D-image below not only captures the glass panels in the pylon, it shows that the movable span was rehabilitated again in 2019 (according to Google's date). Emergency repairs were done in 1980 when a Tarta Bus driver saw the bridge move too much. [G. Ben Paxton, II comment on Bridge Hunter] The glass panels contain thousands of LED lights that are used to produce night time light shows. [WeeksIII] (The number of LEDs is over 350 according to IronWorkersLocal55, 96 LED fixtures according to ODOT-pylon and 384 LED fixtures according to ASBI. I've concluded that each of the four glass panels has 96 LED fixtures and that each fixture has many LEDs.) There are red, green and blue emitters so that practically any color can be programmed.

3D Satellite

"The cable arrangement is unique in that the cables do not attach to the main tower. Rather, the cables loop through the towers, and attach only at the bridge deck. Several smaller cable stayed bridges are now using this technique, but this is the pioneering structure to attempt such a design." [WeeksIII] The 20 stay cables range from 82 to 156 epoxy-coated steel strands, the largest ever constructed. The stay cradle consists of a curved tube for each strand, which prevents the strands from rubbing together in the cradle and thus eliminates wear and corrosion and prolongs the life of the bridge. 82, 119 and 156 strand cables were tested for axial fatigue for over 2,000,000 cycles. Another first is that the stay cables have stainless steel sheathing. [ODOT-cables] The stay cradles are also made with stainless steel. [ASBI]

DLZ
[FIGG does like segmented, box-girder construction. I have to remind myself of the scale of those segments. To carry six lanes plus two full shoulders, they are 60' wide. [ODOT-segments, p1] 3,057 segments were produced using a "match casting" process with 15 casting machines, many capable of producing one segment per day. Match casting uses the previous segment as one of the form walls. Each segment can be slightly different to form the needed curves in the bridge. The segments are numbered so that they can be assembled in the correct order. [ODOT-segments] Each segment weighs 60-100 tons. [ODOT-approaches]]

ODOT-segments, p2

ODOT-pylon

ODOT-facts

ODOT-approaches

Photo via VGCS

The main pylon stands 400' above the river. [ODOT-pylon]

Photo via VGCS

ASBI

The glass in the pylons was in response to community input. It recognizes Toledo's reputation for being the Glass City. There are glass manufactures in the northwest Ohio because of the discovery of natural gas in the 19th Century. Libbey and Owens Corning are in the Toledo area and the Fostoria Glass Company was started in nearby in Fostoria, OH.


Toledo Blade blocked me with a registration popup before I could find the date on the article: "Corrosion threat on Skyway bridge deck discovered." But the bridge can't be more than 12 years old, so my opinion of FIGG supervised bridge construction goes down another notch. FIGG was responsible for the Construction Engineering Inspection as well as the design. [ASBI] (Update: a comment indicates the article was dated Feb 6, 2012. I'll bet when ODOT paid for all of that stainless steel that they did not expect to have to be dealing with corrosion issues just five years after the bridge opened.)

Evidently some of the workers were killed. Not even the iron workers site mentioned that.

ODOT-trench

Update:

Barry Thornberry posted
Construction of the Veterans' Glass City Skyway, Toledo, Ohio, October 19, 2003.

First of 22 photos posted by Matt Pietscher
Algoma Innovator unloadoing, Toledo Ohio 8-2-22
Matt Pietscher shared

Andrew Dean Detroit posted
Always have to stop in and check on the American Valor when in Toledo.
Michael Graves Klüg: That’s the Frog Pond, where they park old laid up boats, right? I have a childhood memory of fishing down there with my big brother and some other kids. There were two big lakers tied up side by side. The boats seemed absolutely enormous up close.
Isaac Pennock: not the frog pond, the hocking valley dock
Dennis DeBruler: And I like the photo of the Glass City Skyway Bridge as well.
Andrew Russell shared
Andrew Russel shared

Nolan Skipper Raspbury LaFramboise II commented on Andrew's post
Andrew Dean Detroit: Nolan Skipper Raspbury LaFramboise II miss seeing them both there, she sure seems lonely now.
[The Manistee was towed away on March 29, 2022, to be srapped by Marine Recyling Corporation.]

Wesley Ryan posted
Saginaw inbound Maumee river 21:48 [Oct 23, 2023]
Kyle Kelsey: Going to the Anderson mill?
Wesley Ryan: Kyle Kelsey Kuhlman docks. Yup