Utah's Bridges: Hite Crossing Bridge over the Colorado River (3)

May 2006 (37.890 Degrees, -110.369 Degrees) Hite Crossing Bridge

This bridge looks in great shape after 46 years. Perhaps the desert environment helps to protect it. I read that the Utah DOT does a good job of maintaining their bridges. I wonder when it was last painted? I like the silver paint. I also like the 'K' bracing, the thick curb, and the open rail. I think driving through an arch bridge is more interesting than driving over an arch bridge.

The way the cables are mounted to the arch ribs is a nice detail. There must be openings in the arch ribs so that maintenance crews can check on the cable anchors. I wonder how they would go about replacing them? Can they remove a cable without damaging the bridge?

I couldn't find the last time this bridge was painted in the maintenance report. Could it be the original paint? It's too bad the bridge is limited to HS-20 vehicles. Also, it's a shame that the first brace is only 15 ft above the roadway. Still, it's a nice bridge for a rural road.

If a 700 ft long bridge over a desert canyon was to be built today, I wonder if a through arch would still be used? The mayor of Shanghai was criticized for building a through arch (The Lupu Bridge) over the Haungpu River after building two cable stayed bridges over the river. Apparently the arch was much more expensive.

Utah's Bridges: Hite Crossing Bridge over the Colorado River (3) by Mark Yashinsky is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.