Rt. 35 Victory Bridge

The Rt. 35 Victory Bridge is the first precast concrete segmental bridge ever constructed in New Jersey. The project involved building twin bridges side by side over the Raritan River. The Southbound structure was first constructed west of the existing Rt. 35 Victory Bridge (a historical Steel Swing Bridge). Traffic was then shifted onto the new SB structure so we could demolish the existing bridge. After demoltion was completed, the twin NB structure was built in the location of the old bridge.

The new bridges are each 3,970’ long and have a 120’ vertical clearance above the channel. Each structure is made up of two cast in place abutments and 22 precast piers. The superstructure is 20 spans of span by span construction, and 3 spans of balanced cantilever. The balanced cantilever spans are the two approach spans (each 330’ horiz clearance) and a main span of 440’ horizontal clearance. At this time, this is the largest horizontal clearance for this type of bridge construction in the United States.

The footings are cast in place concrete. The land piers are supported by 24” diameter concrete filled steel pipe piles and the river piers are supported by 72” or 96” diameter steel shafts. The shafts are up to 120’ long, and have rock sockets up to 24’ deep. The river footings were constructed using steel cofferdams. There are 360 precast pier segments, and 927 superstructure segments between both bridges. The superstructure segments range from 10’ deep to 21’ deep at the main piers.

The project also involved approach roadway construction including vibro concrete columns and precast modular and MSE retaining walls. This project was completed on time and within budget.