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Waterfront Transit Line Bridge over Conrail Freight
Cleveland, Ohio
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Waterfront Transit Line Bridge
 The
Waterfront Transit Line was the first extension of Cleveland’s
rail transit system in 25 years. The 2.2-mile (3.5-km) line’s
opening on July 10, 1996, was scheduled to precede the Cleveland
Bicentennial on July 22. The rail line was intended to “reintroduce”
the city to its waterfront. The Waterfront Transit Line Bridge is
Ohio’s first precast concrete segmental bridge.
The only bridge structure on the Waterfront Transit Line is 645-feet
(197-m) long with five continuous spans and carries two transit
tracks. It clears operating freight tracks of the Consolidated Rail
Corporation by almost 24 feet (7.3 m) and is about 15 feet (4.6
m) above a city street. Restrictions on allowable vertical gradients
for a light-rail transit vehicle, combined with these clearance
requirements, dictated the configuration of the superstructure:
a single-cell concrete box girder. Maintaining freight train operations
and meeting the date of the Bicentennial celebration dictated the
type of construction: precast segmental.
Construction for the fast-track project began in September 1994.
Precasting began in February and was completed by the end of April
1995. Girder erection started in early April 1995. This overlap
necessitated the close scheduling of required segments to meet the
critical erection schedule. The total construction period was 22
months.
The 70 box girder segments were cast about 100 miles (161 km) south
of Cleveland at a vacant heavy assembly plant. Casting beds held
two segments to allow continuous match casting. Segments were trucked
to the construction site as needed, because of a lack of site storage.
Precast segments were placed alternately on each side of a cast-in-place
pier segment according to the balanced cantilever method. Precast
segment installation time was a mere 15 to 20 minutes—enough
time between freight train movements to avoid interference. A continuous
concrete plinth was cast in place on the box girder deck for attachment
(direct fixation) of the rails to the structure.
 Precast
segmental concrete construction allowed quick fabrication, minimum
site impact, fast erection, and ease of construction. The fast-track
schedule was too aggressive to ensure enough time for steel girder
fabrication and delivery.
The choice of precast segmental concrete construction for the Waterfront
Transit Line proved to be the optimal solution, given constraints
on time, cost, and construction.
Project Credits
Owner & Engineer: Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority,
Cleveland, OH
Architect: Parson, Brinckerhoff, Quade & Douglas, Inc.
Contractor & Precaster: Kokosing Construction, Inc., Columbus,
OH
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