Due to extensive deterioration of the Town Street bridge, the City of Columbus, Ohio replaced the existing 7-span earth filled concrete spandrel arch with a 5-span precast, post-tensioned concrete rib arch on reinforced concrete piers and abutments on new alignment, located at Rich Street over the Scioto River. The new bridge carries three travel lanes and 10-foot sidewalks at each side for an out-to-out width of 60 feet. The bridge overall length is 562 feet. The Town Street Bridge joins a “family” of signature arch bridges in the downtown civic center of Columbus. The Town Street Bridge lies between the Broad Street Discovery Bridge, a five span concrete deck arch completed in the early 1990s, and the Main Street Bridge, a three-span bridge with

an inclined through arch suspension bridge in the center span, completed in 2010.

Contract plans for the new Town Street Bridge were prepared by Burgess & Niple, Ltd. and PRIME Engineering, Inc. (PRIME). PRIME served as a subconsultant and performed several of the engineering design tasks associated with the project. PRIME was tasked with the design and prepared plans for the majority of the substructure units which included both complete abutments with pylons, two sets of curved plaza walls, ornamental whisker walls, sheet pile retaining walls for the

riverwalk, and the forward abutment embankment.

The new wall-type cantilever abutments and plaza walls are founded on steel H-piles. The east abutment and east bank plaza walls are in close proximity to an existing sewer line and an abandoned bridge foundation. Light-weight flowable fill was used to minimize the surcharge effects of the new structure to the existing facilities and footings spanning the sewer line were designed. Other components include the use grouted soil anchor and dead-man tie-back system for lateral support for both the sheet pile walls and plaza walls.

PRIME also designed and detailed the bridge approach slabs and provided the bar schedule for all components designed. In all, PRIME generated 119+ construction plan sheets for the signature bridge. The contract plans were prepared in accordance with Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT) requirements. PRIME conducted the subsurface investigation program for the bridge.

Services:

• Bridge Replacement
• Roadway Approaches

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