DESIGN OF THE CABLE-STAYED GIRDER WEIRTON-STEUBENVILLE BRIDGE

When completed, the Weirton-Steubenville Bridge will be the sixth cable-stayed girder bridge constructed in the United States. The design to be constructed at a $20 million cost was chosen in 1983 from three bridge designs presented for construction bids. Crossing the Ohio River between Weirton, West Virginia, and Steubenville, Ohio, the new bridge will be 1,965 ft from abutment to abutment and have a main span of 820 ft. A concrete, inverted Y-shaped tower, which rises 365 ft. above the supporting pier, features above its apex a 140-ft-high pylon that supports a dual-plane cable system. Materials specified for the composite bridge were placed where their properties would provide the greatest advantages without sacrificing integrity and function. Fascia girders are I-girders with webs skewed at 10 degrees from the vertical, thus reducing cable-connection eccentricity, material quantities, and steel fabrication costs. The composite superstructure consists of longitudinal stringers, transverse floor beams, and a concrete deck--all treated as an orthotropic system. Further, horizontal trusses are placed at the hearings of the tower pier and at the outermost cable connections on the ends of the bridge to distribute axial load throughout the deck. The approach spans are continuous, composite, multigirder types. Load-factor design was used in the approach spans, substructure units, the tower, and the multigirder portions of the stayed spans. (Author)