Transcript Slide 1
The Woodrow Wilson Memorial Bridge Project Rich Carmona Michael Francis The Original Bridge • • • • • • Completed 1964 Total Length –1798m Width – 33.5m 6 Lanes of Traffic Height – 50 ft Designed to carry 75,000 vehicles per day • $15 Million Current Conditions In Washington D.C. • Approximately 200,000 vehicles per day • Estimated to grow to 295,000 per day by 2020 • Trucks will have to be prohibited in 2004 • Cost of rehabilitation is equal to the cost of a new bridge • Structural damage caused by dynamic vibrations from overloading New Bridge • • • • • • Total Length –1829m Width – 72.3m 12 Lanes Height – 70 ft 18 Spans Box-girder construction • Cost – $492 million Bascule Span Bridge • 17th Street Bridge (completed 2001) • Total Length – 582m • Width - 32.6m • 4 Lanes • Height – 55 ft • Variable depth segmental construction • Cost - $65 million Parsons Transportation • New Tacoma Narrows Bridge (completed 2007) • Total Length – 1645m • Main Span – 853m • Width – 20.1m • 3 Lanes • Deck stiffened suspension • $615 Million Cost Comparison $2,000.00 New Wilson $1,500.00 17th Street $1,000.00 Tacoma $500.00 Narrows $0.00 cost/sqft • Both bascule spans are much cheaper per square foot • Slightly higher costs of the new Wilson Bridge can be attributed to its greater height Scientific Social Impact • Traffic Lanes will increase from 6 to 12 • Eventually there will be mass transit over the bridge Bridge Openings • The new bridge is taller to allow for fewer openings of the drawbridge which means less standstills. • The backups are regularly miles long in both directions as eight lanes of beltway squeeze into six. Social Impact • Alternatives was to reroute trucks to I-395, I295 and Route 301. • About 20,000 trucks a day could be diverted from the Beltway. $58 Billion of trucked GDP crossed the bridge in 1993. • The diversion of traffic from I-95 would have bad effects on the economy Symbolic • Symbolic of the politics and red tape of D.C. • Looking towards the past • Will increase the suburbanization of Washington D.C. Symbolic • In D.C. it had the opportunity to be a memorable structureidentifying mark of the region Structural Art • Does our bridge “qualify” as structural art? Structural Art • Park within a structure? • Is the bridge honest with us? • Does it accurately convey the forces of the bridge? Does it Matter? • Utilitarian purpose of a bridge- to get people and goods from here to there, in cars, trucks, bicycles or whatever. • Aesthetic and symbolic- to make these crossings meaningful to participants and also to distant observers in boats, on river embankments, in neighboring buildings “Change is not worthwhile unless it shows improvement” -President Woodrow Wilson