DEKALB COUNTY, Ala. — The final steel girder was lifted into place Monday morning for the new SR-75 bridge over Town Creek in DeKalb County. A girder is a large, horizontal support beam that helps hold up the structure.
The $13.7 million bridge will replace the 82-year-old bridge built in 1942. The new structure will be significantly larger: 715 feet long, 38.5 feet wide, and 75 feet above the creek, compared to the old bridge’s dimensions of 280 feet long, 29 feet wide, and 54 feet high. The new design also improves the vertical alignment of the bridge approaches.
Over the past two months, 32 girders, each weighing up to 44 tons, were installed. Workers used around 660 bolts per splice to secure each girder, and will spend several weeks tightening about 23,000 bolts to the required tension. Next, contractors will build the bridge deck and rails, followed by road segments and the demolition of the old bridge.
Traffic on the old bridge remains unaffected as the new bridge is being built on a parallel alignment. The Alabama Department of Transportation expects the project to be completed in about a year.
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