Located within Cuyahoga Valley National Park, Old Rockside Road Bridge was a two-span, prestressed concrete, box-beam bridge supported by stone abutments and a concrete pier crossing the Cuyahoga River. Old Rockside Road is a dead-end street, and the bridge provides the only means of access for several businesses and the Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad station.
The City of Independence, Ohio, retained B&N to replace the structure. To avoid permanent impacts on National Park property, the bridge needed to be replaced within the existing right-of-way on the current alignment. Several alternatives were explored to keep the road open throughout construction while minimizing impacts. With partial-width construction not an option, a temporary 200-foot-long steel bridge parallel to the existing structure was used during the Old Rockside Road Bridge construction. The constructed permanent bridge is a 240-foot-long, three-span steel beam structure with piers placed outside the river channel to improve hydraulics in this flood-prone area. Construction was completed in April 2024.
Significant stakeholder coordination was critical to the project's success. B&N collaborated with the City of Independence and the Village of Valley View, the Cuyahoga County Department of Public Works, ODOT, the Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR), U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the Cuyahoga Valley National Park (CVNP), the Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad (CVSR) and numerous utility companies throughout the project. Coordination included:
- Developing plan notes and construction limitations with ODOT, ODNR, CVNP and CVSR to limit the impact on the State Water Trail and manage access to the railroad station while not overly constraining the contractor's operations.
- Relocating numerous aerial communication and electric lines, underground gas lines and water lines to facilitate both temporary and replacement bridge construction.