State Road 414 Over Hiawassee Road

Florida's First Anchored End-Span Bridge

Orlando, Florida

The gentle taper from the ends to the center was an important aesthetic touch to provide a thin profile for the bridge and integrate the interchange into the surrounding residential area.

We proposed a three-span structure with end spans of 71-feet each and a center span of 286-feet. The end spans were “anchored” to help offset the significant uplift forces caused by unbalanced spans.

The steel plate girders varied in height from nine feet at the intermediate supports to just six feet at the center of the main span.

1st

anchored end-span bridge in Florida

The Central Florida Expressway Authority (CFX) desired an aesthetically pleasing bridge design for a high visibility interchange. The bridge location was a single-point urban interchange that required a clear span of 286-feet. While this distance typically dictated a very deep beam, this type of structure would severely impair the aesthetic qualities that CFX desired. Our solution was an innovative bridge design that had never been used in the state of Florida before - the anchored end-span.

Bowyer-Singleton & Associates, Inc., acquired by Dewberry in 2013, performed this work.

Client

Central Florida Expressway Authority

Awards

Best in Construction, Major Bridge

Florida Transportation Builders' Association

Cost

$4.25 million

Services

Engineering

Markets

Transportation

Regions

Southeast