Fred G. Redmon Memorial Bridge

From HighestBridges.com
Jump to navigationJump to search

Fred G. Redmon Memorial Bridge
Selah Creek Bridge
Yakima, Washington, United States
330 feet high / 101 meters high
549 foot span / 167 meter span
1971

1SelahCreekBridge.jpg


The longest span concrete arch bridge in the United States at the time of its completion in 1971, the Fred G. Fredmon Memorial bridge carries Interstate 82 about 330 feet (101 mtrs) above Selah Creek just north of Yakima, Washington. Like several large arch spans in Germany, the bridge has a clean and simple look with smaller spans and spandrel supports of equal size and length across the entire bridge. For Selah Creek, the 1,336 foot (407 mtr) crossing has 15 spans of 78.5 feet (24 mtrs) and two approach spans of 77 feet (23.5 mtrs). The 549 foot (167 mtr) arch is a box beam with 3 cells. During construction, six steel towers, each 30 feet (9 mtr) square, were used to support the massive arch before it was completed and could support itself. Once the falsework was used for the northbound arch, it was moved 106 feet (32 mtrs) west and reused to build the southbound arch. The ability to save money by reusing a smaller falsework is one of the reasons two narrow bridges were built instead of one wide one. Three of the four arch abutments were strengthened through the use of nine, 5 foot (1.5 mtr) diameter caissons that were necessary to reach down beneath the unstable conglomerate to the more solid shale and basalt. The longest caisson extends 78 feet (24 mtrs) underground.

The Fred G. Redmon bridge held the North American concrete arch span record until 1994 when the double span Natchez Trace Parkway bridge opened near Franklin, Tennessee with two spans of 582 feet (177 meter). That record will be surpassed again in 2010 when the Pat Tillman-Mike O’Callaghan Memorial bridge opens across the Colorado River between the states of Arizona and Nevada with a span of 1,060 feet (323 mtrs).



Fred G. Redmon Memorial Bridge Elevation


2SelahCreekBridge.jpg

Image by Eric Sakowski / HighestBridges.com


3SelahCreekBridge.jpg

Image by Eric Sakowski / HighestBridges.com


4FredRedmonBridge.jpg

Image by Eric Sakowski / HighestBridges.com


5SelahCreekBridge.jpg

Image by Eric Sakowski / HighestBridges.com


6SelahCreekBridge.jpg

Image by Eric Sakowski / HighestBridges.com


7SelahCreekBridge.jpg

Image by Eric Sakowski / HighestBridges.com


8SelahCreekBridge.jpg

Image by Eric Sakowski / HighestBridges.com


9SelahCreekCEJuly72.jpg

Fred G. Redmon Memorial Bridge construction photo from Civil Engineering magazine July 1972.


10SelahCreekCE.jpg

Fred G. Redmon Memorial Bridge construction photo from Civil Engineering magazine July 1972.


11SelahCreekBridge.jpg

Image by Eric Sakowski / HighestBridges.com


12SelahCreekBridge.jpg

Image by Eric Sakowski / HighestBridges.com


13SelahCreekBridge.jpg

Image by Eric Sakowski / HighestBridges.com


SelahAerial.jpg

Fred G. Redmon Memorial / Selah Creek Bridge satellite image.