Award of Merit, Small Project: I-40 Trail and Gail Ryba Memorial Bridge, Albuquerque, N.M.
While Albuquerque has developed more than 400 miles of trails and bike lanes over the past two decades, this 1,100-foot-long bridge over the Rio Grande River filled in a major missing link connecting the city's east and west sides. By compressing the design schedule to just two months, the bridge qualified in time for ARRA support. The judges appreciated the use of cost-effective, prefabricated bridge trusses and precast concrete gravity wall segments, which helped reduce construction time and lessened the impact on the environment.