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Quick facts about the Jeremiah Morrow Bridge project:
The Jeremiah Morrow Bridge is Ohio’s tallest bridge with a distance of 239 feet from the deck to the water surface of the Little Miami River.
Total bridge length: 2,235 feet (maximum span between two piers is 440 feet)
Approximately 44,000 vehicles per day travel the structure
Approximately 2.3 million pounds of post-tensioning steel cable is incorporated into the structure. The length of the cable is enough to stretch from the Jeremiah Morrow Bridge to Atlanta, Ga.
The bridge contains approximately 12,559,000 pounds, or 6,279.5 tons, of reinforcing steel. That is 3,500 times the weight of an average car and 27 times the weight of the Statue of Liberty.
The bridge contains about 50,648 cubic yards, or about 5,000 truckloads, of concrete. This amount could be used to lay a 260-mile standard size sidewalk. (3 feet wide by 4 inches thick). Such a sidewalk could span from New York City to Washington, D.C.; or from Cincinnati to Cleveland.
SOURCE: ODOT District 8
Reconstruction of the Jeremiah Morrow Bridge provided engineering students at Kings High School with the opportunity to learn more about the complexities of managing a multimillion dollar project.
“The structure is a once-in-a-lifetime facility, and Jason Shields, the engineering teacher at Kings High School, expressed interest in having his students visit the project,” explained Joseph Smithson, P.E., District Geotechnical Engineer with ODOT District 8, and father of engineering student Laurel Smithson. “The project is now close to completion, so this fall was the last opportunity for a group to tour the structure.”
The $88.1-million Jeremiah Morrow Bridge project replaces the high level bridges on Interstate 71 just outside Wilmington. Existing deck truss bridges are being replaced with a concrete cast-in-place segmental box structure using the balanced cantilever method of construction.
KHS students enrolled in Engineering 2 recently visited the project, bringing to life their studies of vectors, inertia, deflection, compression and tension forces.
“They were able to witness the engineering design process in action on a huge scale,” Shields said. “They were able to build their understanding of civil engineering and construction management. A lot of my student are interested in these careers, and this field trip allowed them to get firsthand exposure of their future career.”
During the field trip, students learned about the steps of bridge construction — from installing the various foundations types supporting the bridge to pouring the individual bridge segments and using post-tension tendons to keep the bridge together. The students also learned more about the project team.
“I hope the tour enlightened each student on how engineers come together as a team to solve real-world problems. In this case, the problem is a new bridge over a national scenic river, but the same thought process and team approach is used by all engineering disciplines,” Smithson said.
Last year, the students built bridges out of fettuccine and hot glue that spanned 50 cm. Some the structures held more than 100 pounds.
“My students and I enjoyed the complicated description of how the bridge used a cantilever process for construction of the bridge, and we also loved being able to go inside the bridge and see the huge cables that provided the compression and tension support for the bridge,” Shields said. “It was awesome for my students to see the same forces that we studied on a smaller scale at work on the tallest bridge in Ohio.”
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