Rockaways Bridges Rehabilitation

Rehabilitation of Two Key Bridges to Extend Life and Defer Need for Replacement

New York, New York

The design-build project included strengthening the navigational span girders and making them redundant for the Cross Bay Veteran Memorial Bridge.

An existing pedestrian ramp at the south end of the Cross Bay Veteran Memorial Bridge was replaced with a new ADA-compliant ramp.

The walkway along the east side of the Cross Bay Veterans Memorial Bridge was repaved, restriped, and resigned for pedestrians and bicyclists.

Our firm was the lead designer for a $33 million design-build project that included the rehabilitation of the Cross Bay Veterans Memorial Bridge in Queens, New York, and the Marine Parkway-Gil Hodges Memorial Bridge located in Brooklyn and Queens, New York.

The Cross Bay Veterans Memorial Bridge (CBB) carries three lanes of traffic in each direction to and from the Rockaways in Queens. The bridge has a 10-foot wide, shared-use path for pedestrians and bicyclists on its east side, which is protected from traffic by a concrete barrier. The project focused on the structural rehabilitation of the navigational span and the replacement of an existing pedestrian ramp at the south end to create an Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)-compliant, shared-use path across the CBB. Our design-build team implemented an innovative rehabilitation of CBB’s navigational span, including the installation of carbon fiber reinforced polymer layers to strengthen the girder corbels of the navigational span and a steel redundant support system, to extend the bridge’s life and defer the need for replacement.

2

bridges

3

lane Cross Bay Veterans Memorial Bridge

2

lane Marine Parkway–Gil Hodges Bridge

The Marine Parkway–Gil Hodges Bridge (MPB) is a steel multi-span vertical lift bridge that connects Flatbush Avenue at Floyd Bennet Field in Brooklyn to Jacob Riis Park and Fort Tilden in the Rockaways in Queens. MPB includes four lanes, two in each direction, and a six-foot-wide sidewalk along the west side of the bridge. The project included the replacement of finger joints at the lift span and installation of prototype aluminum orthotropic deck panels to determine if replacement of the open grid deck at the truss spans is suitable.

This contract also included the installation of weigh-in-motion systems at both bridges as a broader effort by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) to mitigate damage to its infrastructure due to overweight vehicles.

The two bridges connect to populated areas of the Rockaways that see heavy traffic. Our design team’s efforts to create an ADA-compliant shared-use path across the CBB provides a value-added amenity to improve bicycle and pedestrian accessibility.

Owner

Metropolitan Transit Authority Bridges and Tunnels

Client

El Sol Contracting & Construction

Awards

Gold Award, Structural Systems Category, Engineering Excellence Awards 2025

American Council of Engineering Companies New York

Project of the Year Award , Small Projects under $40M Category

American Society of Highway Engineers

Cost

$33 million

Services

Engineering

Markets

Transportation

Regions

Northeast

703.849.0100