When was the zakim bridge finished

Il ponte segue un nuovo design in cui, oltre ad avere le sue otto corsie principali che attraversano le torri, una coppia di corsie in direzione nord sono a sbalzo all'esterno degli stralli. Ha un aspetto sorprendente e aggraziato che ha lo scopo di riecheggiare la torre del Bunker Hill Monument, che si trova in vista del ponte, e i cavi bianchi evocano l'immagine del sartiame della USS Constitution, ormeggiata nelle vicinanze.

Nome Il nome completo del ponte commemora il leader dell'area di Boston e attivista per i diritti civili Leonard P. Zakim che ha sostenuto la "costruzione di ponti tra i popoli" e la battaglia di Bunker Hill. In origine, il governatore del Massachusetts A. Nel , tuttavia, il clero locale e i leader religiosi, incluso il cardinale Bernard Francis Law, hanno richiesto il nome Zakim poco dopo la morte di Zakim per mieloma. Leonard P. Related Article Titles Big Dig. Steel boxes were drilled into the spires to fasten the cables into the towers.

To prevent the additional weight of the cantilevered roadway section from throwing the entire bridge off-balance, the cables were shifted three inches off-center. To support the towers, workers drilled eight-foot-diameter steel shafts into bedrock. In order to avoid impact to the MBTA Orange Line and its ventilation building, the steel shafts were encased in tubing, and the legs of the towers were inverted at a degree angle so as to straddle the MBTA tracks below. On each side span, there are 24 cable stays leading from the median to the tops of the towers.

On the main span, four sets of 17 cables were strung from the sides of the roadway to the spires. The longest of these cables is feet long. There are 14 strands in each cable in the cables closest to the towers, and up to 73 strands in the strands furthest from the towers.

The last three cables are anchored in foot-long spline beams beneath the roadway. The south spline beam missed the old I ramps by just two feet. Despite its elegant, streamlined appearance, the new bridge was designed to be exceptionally strong. It was built to withstand winds of over miles per hour, as well as hold up against a magnitude 7. This photo shows one of the towers of the Zakim Bridge from the perspective of the northbound lanes of I Such a connector had been planned as early as the 's, but opposed by wealthy Bostonians who feared that the connector would feed too much traffic into Beacon Hill and Back Bay.

By the time the connector was finally approved in , such resistance had waned. The steel box-girder span was approved in April as the low-bid contender for the Storrow Drive Connector, and work on the bridge began soon thereafter. During the summer of , nine large "tub" girders measuring from 9 to 18 feet deep - in cross-section the largest in North America - were shipped by barge from Tampa to Boston, and carefully maneuvered along the Charles River locks.

The nine girders, which together form a trapezoid, were raised into place by cranes and jacks onto concrete piers.

The foot-long Storrow Drive Connector opened to traffic on October 7, , several weeks ahead of schedule. It boasts a foot-long main span and foot-long back span, and its foot-width carries four lanes of traffic between I and Storrow Drive. During early , work began on the approaches to the bridge. Construction of new ramps to the southern approach was complicated by the presence of the existing elevated ramps connecting the old Central Artery with Leverett Circle.

Eventually, the old ramps were closed and demolished. With the towers completed by late , workers began to construct the main roadway and connecting cables. Engineers cut 70 small diamond- and hexagonal-shaped holes into the bridge's deck to allow light to reach the river below.

By the summer of , with the project nearing completion, engineers discovered a flaw: workers were forced to tear up a large section of the bridge deck when it was discovered that the concrete had not adhered properly to the steel rebar inside. It was formally dedicated on October 6, to the memory of Leonard P. The bridge also honors the memory of those who fought in the nearby Battle of Bunker Hill in However, local traffic reporters prefer the moniker "Zakim Bridge" rather than the longer formal name.

A second bridge walk and a concert by Bruce Springsteen, a favorite performer of Zakim's, marked the formal dedication. On March 30, , the Zakim Bridge opened to northbound I traffic for the first time. Order, unity, and detail. A good designer has to pay attention to the detail. His success reimagining a better, more graceful design earned him a nickname: the Bridge Doctor. Yet under optimum conditions, when traffic flows smoothly outside of rush hours, the driving experience is fleeting — a car could cross the structure in less than 30 seconds.

Menn in November Menn was born in in Meiringen, a community in the Bern canton, or member state, of Switzerland. He received an engineering degree in from ETH Zurich, a science, engineering, mathematics, and technology university in Zurich. After working for a few years as an engineer with companies in Zurich and Bern, he became a research associate professor at ETH Zurich, from which he graduated in with a doctorate in science and technology.

Menn then worked as an engineer for a Paris company before moving to Chur, where for 15 years he ran an engineering company that was responsible for designing some 80 bridges, he said in his resume. From until he retired in , Dr. Menn was a professor of structural engineering and design at ETH Zurich. Afterward, he continued to work as a consultant. When you are designing buildings, you always are collaborating with architects.