4th Street Bridge (SH 96A) over the Arkansas River

The $27.7 million (U.S.) project is for the replacement of the existing bridge which carries SH 96A over a city street, the Arkansas River, a floodwall, the river trail and railroad yards for the Union Pacific Railroad and the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad.  The new bridge will pass over 30 railroad tracks, including one mainline track for BNSF Railroad and two mainline tracks for Union Pacific Railroad.  The existing bridge is being replaced with twin cast-in-place segmental concrete box girder bridges with a six foot separation between the bridges.  Additionally, the roadway alignment and profile of the corridor are being improved as a part of the project.

The proposed bridge will have span lengths of 151’, 235’, 377’, 229’ and 145’.  The average length of the bridges is 1,137 feet.  The superstructure cross section for each bridge will provide for two twelve foot travel lanes, a six foot inside shoulder, a ten foot outside shoulder and a ten foot sidewalk.  The superstructure will be built utilizing the balanced cantilever method of construction for interior Piers 3 and 4 and cast-in-place construction on falsework for the end spans and over Piers 2 and 5.  The box girder varies in depth from 18’ to 8’.