What is a "straddle bent"?
Lepidopteran
notice a unique term: "straddle bent". Is this the correct
engineering term for that unusual highway overpass where a large beam
is held up by concrete columns on either side, and the roadway runs
across it on a curve or sharp angle?
One such structure was recently constructed as part of the Woodrow
Wilson Bridge project, where a flyover ramp to/from MD-210 lands right
in the center of the Beltway.
The website where I saw this term used was for the Miami Intermodal
Center, a consolidated rent-a-car facility (read: HUGE parking
structure) and transportation terminal at Miami Int'l Airport. The
straddle bent described was actually for a peoplemover.
http://www.micdot.com/mia_construction_photos.html
and
http://www.micdot.com/rental_car_center.html
There are also some good road construction photos on the site
http://www.micdot.com/roadway_improvments.html
with each project accessible from the columns on the left.
Scott M. Kozel
>
> Looking through a website of a construction project in Florida, I
> notice a unique term: "straddle bent". Is this the correct
> engineering term for that unusual highway overpass where a large beam
> is held up by concrete columns on either side, and the roadway runs
> across it on a curve or sharp angle?
>
> One such structure was recently constructed as part of the Woodrow
> Wilson Bridge project, where a flyover ramp to/from MD-210 lands right
> in the center of the Beltway.
There are straddle bents on the I-295/I-64 Flyover Project near Richmond
VA. A bridge crosses over a roadway as a very sharp skew, to where
conventional piers would be in the middle of the roadway, so the
crossmember extends well outside of the bridge footprint, so that the
piers are outside of the roadway.
http://www.roadstothefuture.com/I64-I295-Int-Nov2707-12.jpg
http://www.roadstothefuture.com/I64-I295-Int-Mod-Photos-Nov07.html
--
Scott M. Kozel Highway and Transportation History Websites
Virginia/Maryland/Washington, D.C. http://www.roadstothefuture.com
Capital Beltway Projects http://www.capital-beltway.com
Philadelphia and Delaware Valley http://www.pennways.com
Lepidopteran
<koz...@comcast.net> wrote:
>There are straddle bents on the I-295/I-64 Flyover Project near Richmond
>VA. A bridge crosses over a roadway as a very sharp skew, to where
>conventional piers would be in the middle of the roadway, so the
>crossmember extends well outside of the bridge footprint, so that the
>piers are outside of the roadway.
>http://www.roadstothefuture.com/I64-I295-Int-Nov2707-12.jpg
In highway construction, there appear to be two kinds of straddle
bents. In one design, like the one in the above picture, the
cross-beam directly contacts the bottom of the roadbed; it is "flush"
with the regular support beams. In the other, the cross beam actually
holds up the beams which support the roadbed; there are two "layers"
of structural steel. This design seems to be more common for higher
and/or longer spans.
ISTR that 1 or 2 straddle bents were recently dismantled over US-35 in
Dayton, OH. They were taken down with the overbuilt Steve Whalen
Blvd. interchange (originally intended to be a lead-in to the
long-cancelled Belmont (?) Expressway), now reconfigured as a simple
diamond or similar interchange.
The New Jersey Turnpike has straddle bents at some of the points where
vehicles in the cars-only lanes get to the service plazas and back by
leaping over the truck/bus lanes.