Arthur Ravenel Jr. Bridge

摘要

With a length of 5.6 km, the new, eight-lane Arthur Ravenel Jr. Bridge, which crosses the Cooper River in Charleston, South Carolina, features a main span of 471.2 m complemented by two 174.3 m high diamond-shaped concrete towers, high-level approaches, 15 ramps, and two interchanges. The longest cable-stayed bridge in North America, it is also the first major design/build bridge project in the United States. The project was designed and built in four years--one year ahead of schedule--saving the South Carolina Department of Transportation an estimated 150 million dollars. Designed to meet extreme wind, ship collision, and earthquake conditions while preserving the area's scenic, aesthetic, historical, and environmental resources, the bridge's innovative structural engineering solutions include offset stay cable anchors to reduce main span tower moments, very long continuous approach spans to minimize the number of bearings and joints, and the elimination of almost all pile caps by using large-diameter drilled shafts framed directly into pier columns.