A Bridge Moment

Greetings from Bridging Solutions!

 

This installment of “A Bridge Moment” provides some highlights about the brand new town of Babcock Ranch in Charlotte County and its signature entrance bridge that was recently substantially completed. Bridging Solutions was responsible for the structural design of the entrance bridge working directly for the town’s developer Kitson & Partners. Thomas Marine Construction, based in Fort Myers, FL, was responsible for the construction of the bridge.

At the initial design meeting for the entrance bridge, Kitson and Partners stated one of their goals for the design of this first entrance was to create a feeling that you have arrived at a special place. They also said that they wanted to be able to give directions to Babcock Ranch to first time visitors by saying – “take State Route 31 north out of Fort Myers and turn right at the bridge”. Watch the video below to view a flyover of the bridge.

The following is a blurb from the town’s website - Today, the town of Babcock Ranch that Syd Kitson envisioned is becoming a reality. Designed to accommodate 19,500 residences, an engaging downtown, numerous green spaces, lakes, and nature trails, Babcock Ranch will ultimately be home to approximately 50,000 residents. Here is a link to the website: https://www.babcockranch.com/  Babcock Ranch is the world’s first solar powered town which will utilize on-site, state of the art solar generation facilities to produce clean, renewable energy.

 

The truth is, the entrance bridge is actually what we bridge engineers refer to as a “faux” bridge because it doesn’t span over anything. It has water on both sides of it to give the appearance of a bridge but no water actually flows under it. We have designed many “faux” bridges for developers in Florida over the years, but this one is in a class by itself.​​​​​​​

The bridge consists of 154 foot long by 16 feet high steel trusses supported on four, 10 foot wide by 5 foot long, cast in place concrete spread footings. The bowstring type trusses were modified to include the Babcock Ranch logo at mid span of the trusses. Bridge Brothers was the steel fabricator for the trusses which were painted using a 3 coat paint system in accordance with FDOT specifications. The roadway embankments at each fascia of the bridge are retained using a segmental concrete block and geogrid retaining wall system.  The Vertica block by Anchor Wall was specified to provide a vertical face.

15863 Secoya Reserve Circle, Naples, FL 34110
(239) 216-1370

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