PASADENA, CA (July 13, 2016) – Parsons announced that the Hastings Bridge was honored by the National Steel Bridge Alliance (NSBA) on June 28, 2016, with the 2016 Prize Bridge Award in the major span category. Parsons served as the lead designer in the Hastings Bridge design-build joint venture and also provided engineering management and bridge erection engineering services. NSBA’s Prize Bridge Award recognizes innovative design and engineering using structural steel and is the highest honor bestowed upon steel bridge projects in the United States by the nation’s structural steel industry.
“With unbraced freestanding ribs and added redundancy in the tie system, the Hastings Bridge truly represents the innovation that is taking place in the industry,” stated Brian Kozy, NSBA Prize Bridge Awards Judge and Structural Engineering Division Team Leader with the Federal Highway Administration. “This project really advanced the state of the art for tied-arch design and construction.”
Michael Johnson, Parsons Group President, added, “The Hastings Bridge will serve generations to come, and we’re honored that our work has been recognized by the NSBA with a Prize Bridge Award. With the number of fracture-critical bridges in the United States, Parsons has made it a priority to provide our customers with cost-effective, innovative solutions that ensure safety, reliability, and long service life.”
At 1,938 ft long, and with a 545‑ft-long main span, the Hastings Bridge—designed and built to last 100 years—is the longest freestanding arch bridge in North America. It carries Trunk Highway 61 over the Mississippi River in the scenic recreation area of Hastings, MN. The bridge features a steel box arch rib with a post-tensioned concrete tie girder and a network hanger system, plus a load-path-redundant steel grid floor system to meet rigorous redundancy requirements. Representing one of the heaviest bridge moves in the United States, the 3,300‑ton main span was erected on land, transferred onto barges using self-propelled modular transporters, guided downriver by tugboats, slid into position using a hydraulic skid system, and lifted 55 ft into place with strand jacks.
Parsons’ work on the Hastings Bridge has been recognized with numerous awards, including Engineering News-Record magazine’s 2014 Midwest Best Project of the Year in the highways/bridges category, 2015 Best Accelerated Bridge Construction (ABC) in the self-propelled modular transporter category of the National ABC Construction Awards, 2014 Favorite/Most Innovative Structure from the Illinois Chapter of the Structural Engineers Association, an American Council of Engineering Companies (ACEC) Illinois Engineering Excellence Honor Award, and an ACEC national Engineering Excellence Honor Award.
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