Editorial: Bridge Business Is Big, Complicated Business

A voyage into the world of Roger Wiebusch, soon-to-be retired bridge administrator (in St. Louis) for the Eighth Coast Guard District, reveals that bridge business is big business—and complicated. (See “10 Minutes With Roger Wiebusch,” starting on Page 3.)

As that piece tells us, Wiebusch has had the responsibility for the 22-state inland waterway system for which he coordinates and balances “reasonable needs of navigation with land transportation while ensuring that actions comply with federal environmental laws.”

It is in the beginning that the big business of bridge building immediately gets complicated. All may be peaceful with the world until the need, or supposed need, for a new bridge arises. Once reasonable need is agreed upon, the issue picks up steam. Selecting bridge location is critical. If it is going to be a bridge under whose spans commercial navigation must pass, its relative distance from river bends must be considered. How large are the vessels or tows that must pass through the navigation span? If there is a river bend nearby, will it prevent vessels from navigating safely through bridge spans? As Wiebusch explained, bridges are not meant to be obstructions to navigation.

And of course a number of aging bridges that cross the waterways were built before the advent of the modern towing industry and its larger tow sizes. Some of these bridges have narrow spans that cause white knuckles for pilots approaching them. Under the Truman-Hobbs Act, the Coast Guard can identify those bridges and provide money to have them altered, bringing them up to today’s standards. The Coast Guard currently has a list of 12 bridges that have been declared obstructive, including six on the Upper Miss, two on the Illinois Waterway, three on the Gulf Coast and one in Boston.

But getting bridges declared obstructive is just the first step; often, it’s a long, grinding process to get Congress to appropriate money to pay for the alterations. The EJ&E Bridge over the Illinois Waterway, for example, was declared obstructive four years ago, but Congress was doling out only $1–2 million per year out of the $30 million needed, despite constant requests for help from the Coast Guard and Illinois River operators. Finally, in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of last year, Congress appropriated enough money to fund the EJ&E alteration, as well as three other bridge projects.

As Wiebusch pointed out, “The navigation industry plays a significant role in all aspects of managing the bridge program for the Western Rivers.”

River bends are just one factor in considering bridge location. In major cities, there are numerous bridges within sight of each other. Considering the channel must accommodate upbound and downbound traffic, other factors can come into play. Downbound vessels always have the right-of-way because they are moving with the current and are harder to maneuver. It is oft said that it takes up to a mile to stop a loaded 15-barge tow moving downriver. With water pushing against the bow of an upbound tow, and with engines in reverse, a tow can be stopped much more quickly.

We can conclude rightly that there is a great amount of work to do before a bridge moves from the point of concept to the point where thousands of vehicles cross it daily. We haven’t, and won’t, even go into detail about construction specifications that deal with the type of bridge to be built, the amount of weight the bridge must bear, the temperatures to which it will be subjected, life expectancy, etc.

From concept to finished span, bridge business truly is Big Business.

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