Wednesday, Oct. 9, 2002 | 11:04 a.m.
Drivers passing over U.S. 95 on Valley View Boulevard this weekend will be taking a path crossed by thousands of U.S. veterans.
The temporary bridge to open Sunday across the highway is a modern version of the venerable Bailey bridge, which military engineers have used to ford rivers, creeks and chasms since World War II.
Acrow Corp. has the license for the commercial use of the bridges, which are distinctive for their open-lattice structures. Eugene Sobecki, the company's national sales manager, said they may not appear as solid as the large concrete bridges to which motorists are accustomed.
"They're not as pretty as more modern, permanent structures," Sobecki said. "It does look more utilitarian, industrial looking."
But drivers and pedestrian should not fear the bridges, he said. The company knows of no failure of the structures, many of which have been in constant use for decades and are now employed worldwide when a cheap, efficient and durable bridge is needed.
Another Acrow bridge is planned for Decatur Boulevard early next year.
The bridges, which are rented from Acrow, can be extended for hundreds of feet, can carry many times their own weight and can be added together for multiple uses.
"It's just like driving over a regular bridge," said Sgt. George Smith of the Nevada National Guard's 777th Engineering Detachment, based in Henderson. Smith during his 10 years of active duty in the Army built the bridges in Europe.
"The parts are quite heavy and sturdy," he said. "Once it's completed, depending on the width, it can withstand the weight of an M1 tank."
One of the most visible recent uses for the bridges was at the demolition and cleanup at New York's World Trade Center, where Acrow built the ramp that construction companies and emergency workers used to get in and out of the crater caused by the Sept. 11 terror attacks.
Sobecki said the bridges over U.S. 95 are very similar, if smaller.
"A panel bridge is a big erector set," he said. "The ones we used at the World Trade Center have the same components that we're using at Valley View and Decatur."
"The grandpappy of all of them are the Bailey bridges that were used during World War II," Sobecki said.
While the bridges spanning U.S. 95 are not expected to handle the same kinds of weight or heavy use as the ramp at the World Trade Center, the local versions can take anything that local car and truck traffic will throw on them, Sobecki and local contractors say.
"The bridge is engineered and designed to carry the loads," said Jim Witt, project manager for MMC Inc., the general contractor for the U.S. 95 project.
Valley View will actually use two of the bridges, one each for northbound and southbound traffic, with pedestrian walkways on both sides. Each temporary bridge is 220 feet long, 24 feet wide, and supported by a central pier and concrete abutments at both ends. Each bridge weighs about 84 tons.
Nevada Department of Transportation spokesman Bob McKenzie said the Valley View bridge is scheduled to open for traffic Sunday at 9 p.m.
For three days beginning Oct. 18, U.S. 95 will be closed to traffic while construction contractors demolish the old Valley View bridge. The work is part of a $400 million widening project that will add traffic lanes from Martin Luther King Boulevard to Craig Road on U.S. 95.
The highway was originally scheduled to be closed this weekend, but NDOT pushed the demolition back because of traffic expected for the Invensys Classic golf tournament this week.
NDOT contractors will build a similar temporary bridge over the highway at Decatur Boulevard once the old bridge at Valley View is torn down, McKenzie said, probably in February.
New permanent bridges at Valley View and Decatur should be completed in one year, he said.
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