| Kansas Turnpike Bridges | |
|---|---|
| Carries | 4 lanes of I-70/Kansas Turnpike |
| Crosses | Kansas River |
| Locale | Lawrence, Kansas |
| Maintained by | KTA |
| Design | 2 Deck Truss Bridges (original spans), 2 multi-beam girder bridges (current span) |
| Opened | 1956 (original spans)[1] 2009 (current westbound span)[2] 2010 (current eastbound span)[3] |
The Kansas Turnpike Bridges are a pair of multi-beam girder bridge that carry the Kansas Turnpike and Interstate 70 over the Kansas River at Lawrence, Kansas.
The first bridges were a pair of deck trusses, each carrying two lanes of traffic. The bridges were the site of the groundbreaking of the Turnpike on December 31, 1954.[1] The bridges, along with the rest of the Turnpike, was opened for a day of free travel on October 20, 1956 between 6 a.m. and 2pm.,[4] then opened for regular traffic on October 25 at 10 a.m.[1]
By 2007, the bridges were considered to be at the end of their design life, and a project to replace the bridges was begun.[5] The first of the two new bridge was opened to traffic in October 2009, carrying 2 lanes in each direction.,[2] with the demolition of the old bridge occurring with several blasts, the first of which occurred on November 15, 2009[6] and the last on January 13, 2010.[7] The second bridge was completed in late 2010, with traffic moved onto the new bridge on November 29.[3]
|
||||||||