Detroit — After years in the making, a first-of-its-kind bridge in Michigan was officially opened Friday.
Federal, state and local leaders gathered for a news conference and the grand opening of the new Second Avenue span over Interstate 94 in Detroit.
The event was held next to Wayne State University’s parking structure on West Palmer at Second.
“This is an amazing bridge,” Federal Highway Administrator Shailen Bhatt told the media. “And this is dollars from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law being put to work.”
President Joe Biden signed the law in 2021 and it provided nearly $1 billion to states and local governments to upgrade aging roads, bridges, transit systems and other projects.
Bhatt was joined by Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan, Wayne State University chief financial officer Dave Massaron and other officials.
Whitmer said the bridge is what federal, state, and local governments can do when they work together.
“I’m proud to be here to celebrate the opening of the Second Avenue Bridge,” she said. “This bridge truly is an engineering marvel and it’s a testament to the incredible expertise and professionalism of all those who helped build it.”
Duggan also praised the engineers and the people who built the span.
“They’ve connected the people who live in this area, not just with a road, but with a bikeway and a pedestrian walkway,” he said. “This is the way we ought to be rebuilding this city.”
Officials said the bridge is the first network-tied arch bridge in Michigan.
It is the first skewed and unbraced network arch bridge to be constructed in the U.S., officials said Friday.
Network tied-arch bridges get part of their name from the network of cables on both sides of the span that cross from the top of their arches to the bottom of their decks.
Other things that contributed to the name are the ends of the arches, which are tied, its deck’s shape and the lack of arch supports. The ends of the arches are tied so they cannot spread laterally as the weight of the concrete deck, vehicles, and pedestrians are applied.
The deck is not a rectangle but has two acute corners and two obtuse corners. Officials said its shape was required to accommodate the road and adjacent properties.
And finally, the bridge’s arches have no lateral bracing members.
The new bridge is 245 feet long, 96.5 feet wide and 44.5 feet tall. It also weighs about 5 million pounds.
Brad Wieferich, director of the Michigan Department of Transportation, said the bridge has an innovative design. He said it was chosen to minimize the need for clearance underneath it and above I-94.
“A traditional approach to design would have meant we would have had to lower the freeway, causing more disruption and more delay,” he said.
Wieferich also highlighted the span’s multi-modal aspect.
“Not everyone is driving and we know we have to connect the community whether you’re a pedestrian or using the cycling lanes,” he said. “At the end of the day, this structure represents a good deal of forward-thinking on the part of a lot of people.”
Construction of the bridge was done off-site and the process to move it into place began in July 2022. Crews moved it across the freeway and bolted it in place.
It is part of the Michigan Department of Transportation’s multi-billion dollar project to improve I-94. The bridge cost about $26 million to build.
The previous Second Avenue bridge was built in 1954 and had never been replaced, according to MDOT. It was demolished in 2020.
“The bridge that was here before was unsafe,” Massaron said. “It was falling apart and it was full of potholes.”
He said the state could have replaced it with another just like it but instead “we ended up with one that was constructed around people and I can’t tell you how important that is. We now have a vibrant way to knit our institution together with the community around it.”
cramirez@detroitnews.com
X: @CharlesERamirez