CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Everyone calls it the Valley View Bridge, but it's really two bridges. And by 2021 it should be three.
Crews began in early December to raise the old bridges' fences three feet higher. In mid-January, they began to drive test piles near Canal Road way down below for what will eventually be a four-lane bridge smack in between the old four-lane bridges on Interstate 480.
And that's just half of the job.
Once the new bridge opens, crews will replace the original decks on the old bridges, which opened in 1977. The whole project should last through the summer of 2024.
Walsh Construction of Cleveland won the design-build contract last October for $227.8 million, about $28 million lower than expected by the Ohio Department of Transportation. State and federal moneys will pay the bills.
It's no small matter to replace and supplement bridges 4,155 feet long and about 213 feet high, carrying up to 180,000 vehicles per day across the Cuyahoga River and the Ohio & Erie Canal between Valley View and Independence. The bridges are Ohio's busiest, and the decks are pretty much defunct, despite overlays installed about 25 years ago.
In 2016, ODOT Director Jerry Wray told The Plain Dealer, "We're constantly repairing and repairing and repairing bits and trying to keep the walls and the fences and everything up. It's just draining us constantly."
Crews will reroute traffic at times and create a detour down below for the Ohio & Erie Canal Towpath.
Here's ODOT's timeline for the project:
The test piles are underway, the eastbound fence work is done, and crews are hoping to finish the westbound work in early March. They're closing one westbound lane from 7 p.m. to 6 a.m on weeknights.
In the spring, crews will begin to construct 19 concrete supports for the new bridge.
In the spring of 2019, crews will start topping the supports with steel girders. On each old bridge, drivers will be diverted rightward to make room for construction equipment.
In spring 2021, eastbound vehicles will start to use the new bridge, while crews start to replace the old eastbound bridge's deck.
In spring 2022, the new bridge will start to carry westbound traffic instead, while crews replace the original westbound deck.
In fall 2022, the new bridge will start its long-term job of carrying two lanes of traffic in each direction. The westbound lanes will bypass the interchange with Interstate 77. Eastbound lanes will bypass the Transportation Blvd. interchange.
Through the summer of 2024, crews will paint the bridges through the summer, but ODOT expects little impact on traffic.
