145th Street Bridge Reconstruction
This project completed by the Joint Venture between Kiewit Construction and Tully Construction was for the Reconstruction of the 145th Street Bridge near Yankee Stadium. The project includes demolition and replacement of the existing swing bridge and rebuilding the spans crossing over the Harlem River Drive in Manhattan and the Oak Point Rail yard in the Bronx. The 145th Street Bridge is a 4 lane swing bridge over the Harlem River connecting 145th Street and Lenox Avenue on the Manhattan side to 149th Street and River Avenue in the Bronx side. The Bridge, opened in 1905, carries four 12 foot lanes (2 in each direction) plus walkway on each side. The bridge services between 26,000 and 27,000 vehicles daily.
The existing 145th Street Bridge was a swing type bridge with three through-trusses. An eight span structure, it carried four lanes of traffic over the Harlem River Drive, The Harlem River (This is the swing section of the Bridge) and the Oak Point Link Railroad. The section spanning the Harlem River Drive was built in 1957 and extended the bridge further into Manhattan to allow for the construction of the Harlem River Drive. Additional spans were added in 1990 to allow for the Oak Point Link Railroad right of away.
This 70 million dollar project started in July 2004 and was completed in 2007. It replaced the swing bridge with one constructed off-site, and floated into position on barges. The old bridge was removed and the new one set into place in a matter of days. The project also included the complete replacement of all 6 spans, of which, 3 spans were precast and the 3 poured in place. Job also included seismic retrofitting, partial reconstruction of substructures and the reconstruction of approach roadways. The entire bridge was replaced in three stages. Since the new design allowed for the elimination of the center truss on the swing span this allowed for the change to standard 12 foot widths for each lane on the bridge.