The Valley View Bridge in Valley View, Ohio is the busiest bridge in the Buckeye State carrying an average of 168,500 vehicles daily. The 15-span, 4,160-foot-long bridge was built in 1981. The project included rehabilitating the twin steel girder structures and adding a new center bridge carrying two new lanes in each direction to this major crossing on I-480 over the Cuyahoga River Valley. These improvements support the expected traffic increase on the bridge of 214,000 vehicles per day over the next 20 years.
B&N served as the Independent Quality Firm (IQF) on the design/build team led by Walsh Construction and CH2MHill. The $230 million Valley View Bridge project was completed for the Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT). This is only the fourth ODOT project to include an IQF and the first time for B&N to take on this role.
During the design process, B&N engineers reviewed designs for quality and compliance with the project contract, ODOT, and industry specifications. B&N's scope included reviewing all submittals related to design, including bridge, roadway, drainage, maintenance of traffic, geotechnical and environmental. As part of the contract, Walsh set up a co-location office near the project site so representatives from Walsh, B&N, CH2MHill, and ODOT could work together daily, communicate regularly and meet frequently. This created a transparent and collaborative working process, allowing B&N to help identify potential issues during the design phase.
B&N developed independent structural models of the existing bridges to verify that loading from the steel erection would not produce stresses exceeding allowable limits. This verification analysis required examination of hundreds of load cases and configurations to identify peak stresses in individual members and connections.
B&N’s role as the IQF provided a consistent, quality-focused presence throughout the project. This increased the reliability, safety, and longevity of the new structure. Design was completed in 2019, and construction was completed in June of 2023.