Maumee River Crossing

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This article or section contains information about a future bridge, which is under construction.
It may contain information of a speculative nature and the content may change dramatically as the construction completed, and more information becomes available on it.

The Veterans' Glass City Skyway during construction in October 2006. (Photo courtesy of Shawn Mariani of otchster.com)

The Maumee River Crossing, officially known as the Veterans' Glass City Skyway, is a Cable-stayed bridge currently under construction on Interstate 280 in Toledo, Ohio.

[edit] Information

The Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT) and the city of Toledo began planning the bridge in April 1999, and construction began in Spring 2001. The project consists of building an 8,800 foot span across the Maumee River low-lying land. The main span over the Maumee River will be a cable stay-type bridge with a single pylon and two spans slightly longer than 600 feet on each side of the pylon. The main span approaches will be approximately 4,000 feet north of the river and 3,350 feet south of the Maumee. The project completion date is set for the middle of 2007.

Sketch of the span and surrounding area from overhead

When complete, the bridge will carry three lanes of traffic in each direction. The road's surface will reach a height of 130 feet above the surface of the Maumee River. The bridge is the most expensive project ever undertaken in the history of ODOT, estimated at $220 million.

The main attraction of the bridge is center tower of the Skyway which will contain hundreds of [light emitting diodes] (LED's) that will be capable of creating any color. The LEDs will shine through all four sides of the main pylon via 200-foot glass panels. These lights should be visible from up to three miles away.

[edit] Construction Disaster

The original timeline put the completion date at May 2006, but that became impossible when the gantry crane responsible for construction of the main span collapsed on February 16, 2004. The collapse killed four workers and injured four others. On top of that, main line production was all but halted for 16 months after the acccident. Though two new cranes were quickly brought in, testing them took months and operations were slower than expected.