Renton Bridges
Renton, Washington

CLIENT
BNSF Railway Company

YEAR COMPLETED
2008

PROJECT COST
$12,500,000

PROJECT DESCRIPTION
In 2006, Hanson Professional Services was awarded a design contract for a new deck plate girder bridge over the Cedar River in Renton, Washington. The bridge provides rail access to the Boeing Aircraft Company in Renton, where 767 fuselages are transported by BNSF from Wichita, Kansas to Renton, Washington for final assembly. The new bridge was needed to accommodate wide body fuselages that would not fit through the existing truss bridge. Design challenges included use of existing piers to support a heavier, ballast-deck span, maintaining adequate clearance for future 100 year flood projections, and providing the necessary width to accommodate a wide body aircraft fuselage.

In the process of designing the Cedar River Bridge, the City of Renton approached BNSF with a proposal to piggyback on the three month track closure to replace three existing rail bridges over city streets with new, longer span rail bridges to allow for future road widening. BNSF recommended that the City of Renton contact Hanson for design assistance. The result is that Hanson designed a total of four railroad bridges in the period of approximately four months. The bridges consisted of one steel deck plate girder bridge, two steel through plate girder bridges, and one concrete box girder bridge.

Hanson was also selected to provide construction management for the earthwork, track work and the four bridges: Cedar River bridge, Rainier Avenue bridge, Shattuck Avenue bridge and Hardie Avenue bridge. The success of this project is attributable to Hanson's multi-disciplinary team and our focus on the railroad industry.

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