I-64 Kanawha River Bridge
TYLin was the Prime Consultant for the Kanawha River Bridge, part of the I-64 Widening Project in South Charleston, West Virginia.
The Kanawha River Bridge carries 1-64 eastbound traffic, with three through lanes and one auxiliary lane that cross over railroad tracks, the Kanawha River back channel, Wilson Island, the Kanawha River main channel, and three roads.
With an overall length of 2,975 feet, the Kanawha River Bridge features a 760-foot-long main span and opened to traffic as the longest box girder span in the United States.
TYLin provided design and construction support services to the West Virginia Department of Transportation, Division of Highways for the project. The design for the main span placed the main piers outside the main channel of the Kanawha River to avoid interference with barge traffic. Since barges use the river regularly, the bridge had to span the entire waterway to avoid obstructions to navigation.
A continuous concrete box girder superstructure was chosen for the full length of the bridge, allowing for longer approach spans, and reducing the bridge’s environmental and right-of-way impacts.
The 66-foot-wide bridge section is a slender single-cell box girder with 1-foot, 6-inch-thick webs. The 16-foot-long cantilever overhangs and structural depth vary between 16 feet and 38 feet.
Project Highlights:
- TYLin employed a combination of existing segmental bridge technologies and innovative approaches to solve the challenges of this complex project.
- Materials and design details were selected to achieve a 100-year service life.
- TYLin’s design for the bridge section is lighter and more slender than traditional concrete box designs, utilizing the construction materials to their full potential.
- Span arrangement studies included five different alternatives: concrete box girder, steel tied arch, steel box girder, concrete cable-stayed, and steel truss.
- The Kanawha River Bridge is the first long-span, segmental box girder structure to be built in West Virginia using the balanced cantilever method.
- Bridge construction was completed ahead of schedule.