Rolling and rising methodically into place over the next month, 12 arches are forming what Texas Dept. of Transportation officials believe will be the world's first precast-concrete network-arch bridge. The novel design's ultimate goal is to alleviate congestion in the Fort Worth corridor. The new West 7th Street Bridge posed big post-tensioning and placement challenges for the contracting team.
The new structure will replace the current 972-ft-long, 57-ft-wide crossing over the Trinity River, built in 1913 and serving as an increasingly busy link between downtown Fort Worth and the expanding Cultural District. Corporations agreed to donate land for construction operations supporting the signature, 88-ft-wide bridge, which will have a center median and separate bike-pedestrian paths.