U.S. Grant Bridge
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The U.S. Grant Bridge is the name of the two bridges that carry and have carried traffic on
U.S. Route 23 } U.S. Route 23 or U.S. Highway 23 (US 23) is a major north–south U.S. Highway between Jacksonville, Florida, and Mackinaw City, Michigan. It is an original 1926 route which originally reached only as far south as Portsmouth, Ohio, and has sinc ...
between
Portsmouth, Ohio Portsmouth is a city in and the county seat of Scioto County, Ohio, United States. Located in southern Ohio south of Chillicothe, it lies on the north bank of the Ohio River, across from Kentucky, just east of the mouth of the Scioto River. ...
and
South Portsmouth, Kentucky South Portsmouth is an unincorporated community in Greenup County, Kentucky, United States. South Portsmouth is located on the Ohio River across from Portsmouth, Ohio and west of South Shore, Kentucky. Kentucky Route 8 passes through the comm ...
(just west of the city of South Shore) across the Ohio River in the
United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...
. The original suspension bridge was closed and demolished in 2001 and the replacement
cable-stayed bridge A cable-stayed bridge has one or more ''towers'' (or ''pylons''), from which cables support the bridge deck. A distinctive feature are the cables or stays, which run directly from the tower to the deck, normally forming a fan-like pattern ...
opened on October 16, 2006.


Current U.S. Grant Bridge

Contracts for the new U.S. Grant Bridge were given in the spring of 2001. Construction was expected to be complete in June 2004, but work fell behind schedule due to inclement weather, unusual flooding of the Ohio River, and the partial sinking of a floating construction barge which carried one of the cranes used to work on the center span of the bridge. The date of completion was moved to October 16, 2006. In addition, many downtown business owners were upset over the delays and often criticized the construction company
C.J. Mahan Construction Company
for delays on days when it was sunny and the river levels were average. The bridge was critically underdesigned and not constructible until C.J. Mahan stopped construction and awaited a near complete redesign by the design consultant. Another complaint was that this is the first major bridge project the construction company that was awarded the construction contract has worked on. However, C.J. Mahan has constructed other large bridges in Ohio and West Virginia. Local business owners demanded that ODOT pay local businesses $8 million in lost profit.


Original U.S. Grant Bridge

The original U.S. Grant Bridge was a suspension bridge. The bridge opened to traffic as a
toll bridge A toll bridge is a bridge where a monetary charge (or '' toll'') is required to pass over. Generally the private or public owner, builder and maintainer of the bridge uses the toll to recoup their investment, in much the same way as a toll road ...
in 1927. It wasn't until 1974 when the
Ohio Department of Transportation The Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT; ) is the administrative department of the Ohio state government responsible for developing and maintaining all state and U.S. roadways outside of municipalities and all Interstates except the Ohio T ...
bought the bridge from the Ohio Bridge Commission and removed the tolls. After an inspection found serious deterioration of its suspension cables, the U.S. Grant Bridge closed for repairs over an 18-month period from 1978 to 1979. In order to improve capacity and to add redundancy for vehicular traffic to cross the Ohio River at Portsmouth, a new bridge was proposed downstream from the U.S. Grant Bridge. The proposed bridge would be named the Carl Perkins Bridge and would open to traffic in 1988. In addition, the Jesse Stuart Memorial Bridge, an additional bridge over the
Greenup Lock and Dam Greenup Lock and Dam is the 11th Lock and dam on the Ohio River, located 341 miles downstream of Pittsburgh. There are 2 locks, one for commercial barge traffic that's 1,200 feet long by 110 feet wide, and the auxiliary lock is 600 feet long by ...
upstream from the U.S. Grant Bridge, would open to traffic in 1984. In 1992, ODOT initiated a long-range study to determine whether to continue to rehabilitate the existing bridge or construct a new span. ODOT had spent $9 million from 1977 to 1996 by the time the study was completed to rehabilitate portions of the bridge. According to the study, rehabilitating the span would add only 20 useful years to the suspension bridge before rehabilitation would need to occur again and would cost nearly $30 million. It was found not cost-efficient to continuously rehabilitate the suspension bridge when a new structure would be cheaper in the long-run. The bridge continued to age and once again closed from repairs in 1994. It was listed on the
National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...
on May 31, 2001, as General U.S. Grant Bridge. It was deemed "significant as it represents the first private toll bridge across the Ohio River between Wheeling, West Virginia and Cincinnati, Ohio, and as such provided a strategic vehicular transportation link between southern Ohio and northeastern Kentucky. The U.S. Grant Bridge was also Ohio's first north-south automobile link crossing the Ohio River between Cincinnati and Ironton and today stands as an important engineering achievement associated with the development of early motoring and interstate commerce." It was also deemed notable for "the role the General U. S. Grant Bridge design occupies in the career of David B. Steinman. Steinman, a principal in the engineering consulting firm of Robinson and Steinman, ranked among the nation's prominent early 20th century suspension bridge design firms. Steinman achieved national renown as a bridge designer and author during his long career from 1914 until his death in 1960. His General U. S. Grant Bridge was the second American suspension bridge built with a continuous stiffening truss and the first American suspension bridge with towers of the rocker type (ENR, pp. 622-623). The sand-filled anchorages were equally innovative." With . On July 3, 2001, the original suspension bridge was permanently closed to traffic and the entire structure was torn down within a few months.


See also

*
List of crossings of the Ohio River This is a complete list of current bridges and other crossings of the Ohio River from the mouth at the Mississippi River at Cairo, Illinois to the confluence of the Allegheny and Monongahela Rivers at Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Illinois–Kentuc ...


References


External links


C.J. Mahan Construction Company
contractors for the new U.S. Grant Bridge
U.S. Grant Bridge
at Bridges & Tunnels
U.S. Grant Bridge (Demolished)
at Bridges & Tunnels {{Crossings navbox , structure = Bridges , place = Ohio River , bridge = U.S. Grant Bridge , bridge signs = , upstream = Sciotoville Bridge , upstream signs = ''CSX Transportation'' , downstream = Carl Perkins Bridge , downstream signs =
Road bridges on the National Register of Historic Places in Ohio U.S. Grant Bridge U.S. Grant Bridge Bridges in Greenup County, Kentucky U.S. Grant Bridge Cable-stayed bridges in the United States Road bridges on the National Register of Historic Places in Kentucky Towers in Kentucky Towers in Ohio Bridges over the Ohio River Transportation in Scioto County, Ohio National Register of Historic Places in Scioto County, Ohio U.S. Route 23 Bridges of the United States Numbered Highway System Former toll bridges in Kentucky Former toll bridges in Ohio Portsmouth, Ohio National Register of Historic Places in Greenup County, Kentucky Demolished bridges in the United States Suspension bridges in the United States