GCRTA CONRAIL BRIDGE

The Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority (GCRTA) Conrail Bridge provides a vital link for the Waterfront Transit Line in Downtown Cleveland. The five-span structure carries the Waterfront Transit Line over the Conrail tracks and provides access to many of Cleveland’s attractions including, Municipal Stadium and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. The Kokosing Construction Company was awarded the project based on a bid price of $8.4M in December of 1994.

The structure has an overall length of 650 ft., with a maximum span of 158 ft. and consists of 72 precast segments. A 150 ft. radius horizontal curve at each end of the bridge makes the precasting and erection of the segments challenging.

The precast segments are 27’-8” wide, 6’-3” deep and typically 9’-0” long. Segment weights vary from 60 tons for the pier segments to 37 tons for the typical segments.

The project was extremely fast paced, with incentives for Kokosing to complete construction of the bridge within six months from the Notice-to-Proceed. Precasting of the segments began in late February, erection began in late March, and the bridge was completed in late May. The precast segments were cast approximately 130 miles from the site, trucked to Cleveland and erected in balanced-cantilever using a 300 ton ground mounted truck crane. The Waterfront Transit Line was in operation for Cleveland’s Bicentennial celebration during the summer of 1996.