The Sewickley Bridge is a steel

continuous truss bridge A continuous truss bridge is a truss bridge which extends without hinges or joints across three or more supports. A continuous truss bridge may use less material than a series of simple trusses because a continuous truss distributes live loads ...

spanning the

Ohio River The Ohio River is a long river in the United States. It is located at the boundary of the Midwestern and Southern United States, flowing southwesterly from western Pennsylvania to its mouth on the Mississippi River at the southern tip of Illino ...

between Sewickley and Moon Township, Pennsylvania, carrying State Route 4025 and the Orange Belt. It was built by American Bridge Company and opened on October 21, 1981. Its center span is long and the side spans are each long. The bridge deck contains two vehicle lanes and a pedestrian sidewalk. It crosses above the river. The bridge is owned by the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation. The current bridge is the second bridge to occupy the site; the original Sewickley Bridge opened September 19, 1911, after 26 months of construction. The bridge was a lattice-beam

cantilever truss A cantilever bridge is a bridge built using structures that project horizontally into space, supported on only one end (called cantilevers). For small footbridges, the cantilevers may be simple beams; however, large cantilever bridges designed ...

design, built by the Fort Pitt Bridge Works and officially named the Ohio River Bridge No. 1. By the late 1970s, the bridge had deteriorated badly. The bridge was closed for emergency repairs from January 30 to May 20, 1977, and also from January 11 to March 2, 1979. A replacement bridge was ordered and the design was completed in late 1979. The old Sewickley Bridge closed again on May 14, 1980. To reduce construction costs, the piers from the original bridge were reused for the new bridge. This meant that the old bridge had to be completely demolished before the new bridge could be built. The central suspended span was lowered onto barges and floated away, while the rest of the bridge was dismantled piece by piece to maintain balance of the cantilever arms. The crossing was closed for a total of 17 months before the new bridge opened. The new bridge mimicked the old bridge's shape and scale, although it used box members instead of lattice beams and was of a continuous truss design instead of a cantilever-and-suspended-span design. The original bridge was capped by four decorative finial spires; these were saved and put on public display. One sits in a park in downtown Sewickley, along with the keystone-shaped builder's plaque from the original bridge. Another is near the old Sewickley train station between Route 65 and the river, near the north end of the current bridge; the third spire is at Station Square in

Pittsburgh Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Wester ...

. The fourth is on display across the river in

Coraopolis Coraopolis () is a borough in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania. The population was 5,559 at the 2020 census. In 1940, the population peaked at 11,086. Coraopolis is located west of Pittsburgh along the Ohio River and to the east of the Pittsbur ...

. The location of the bridge is (40.5331234°, -80.1878365°), at an elevation of .

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Sewickley Bridge 1981
{{Crossings navbox , structure = Bridges , place =

, bridge = Sewickley Bridge , bridge signs = SR 4025 , upstream =

Neville Island Bridge The Neville Island Bridge is a tied arch bridge which carries Interstate 79 and the Yellow Belt across the Ohio River and over Neville Island, west of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Construction Opening in 1976, after five years of construction, t ...

, upstream signs = , downstream =

Ambridge–Aliquippa Bridge The Ambridge–Aliquippa Bridge is a steel cantilever through truss bridge which crosses the Ohio River at Ambridge, Pennsylvania. The bridge was originally named the Ambridge-Woodlawn Bridge but was soon renamed Ambridge-Aliquippa when W ...

, downstream signs = Bridges completed in 1911 Bridges completed in 1981 Bridges in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania Bridges over the Ohio River Continuous truss bridges in the United States Historic American Engineering Record in Pennsylvania Road bridges in Pennsylvania Steel bridges in Australia 1911 establishments in Pennsylvania Truss bridges in Australia Steel bridges in the United States

See also

References

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