A Review of the St. Anthony Falls Bridge

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On August 1, 2007 the state of Minnesota received a massive shock when the I-35W Bridge, a critical pipeline that connected the northern twin cities area to downtown Minneapolis, collapsed and fell into the Mississippi river.  The engineering community was stunned that a bridge operating inside its 50 year design life could catastrophically fail with almost zero warning.  The cause of the collapse turned out to be a fatal design flaw that caused the bridge to be structurally deficient from the day it opened.  In the wake of the disaster the state of the art St. Anthony Falls Bridge was built as a replacement in 2008.  Today this new bridge serves as a beacon of what modern day engineering is capable of displaying fascinating new technology, and safety measures all while being environmentally conscious.

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The collapse of the I-35W Bridge, while tragic, has ushered in a new era of safety regulations in regards to the design of today’s bridges and this is none more apparent then on the St. Anthony Falls Bridge.  The bridge contains 323 sensors that measure the conditions of the bridge at all times.  Furthermore, personnel at the University of Minnesota collect this data to determine if and when the bridge needs to be repaired essentially, this bridge can tell us when it needs to be fixed!  This added safety feature has ensured that if a problem does arise that it will be fixed before it can cause any harm.  Also, the bridge has also been constructed with high strength concrete and built in redundancies to allow for added strength without cranking up the cost of the bridge.  Together the high strength concrete, and redundancies have created an extremely sound structural design that is expected to last for at least 100 years, two times longer then that of the previous bridge.

While the bridge may be covered in a set of spectacular lights on the outside, as you can see below, it’s the ordinary looking lights that shine upon the roadbed that are helping reduce our use of energy.  

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The St. Anthony Falls Bridge was the first highway bridge in the United States to use LED lighting, which burn longer and use far less energy then conventional light bulbs, allowing this bridge to make a positive impact on the environment.  Also, the bridge contains two sculptures, one at each end, and while meant to be aesthetically pleasing there is more to them then meets the eye.  These two sculptures are actually made of a special type of photocatalytic concrete called TX Active.  This means the concrete sculptures are actually able to absorb sunlight and pull harmful carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide, and nitrous oxide out of the air.  While this may only make a small impact on the environment this bridge is showing the people the amazing types of green technology that are out there and ready to be used regularly in the near future.

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In conclusion, I see this as a structurally sound, environmentally conscious, and aesthetically pleasing bridge.  This bridge is not just safe to drive on but I actually recommend you drive over it next time you’re in the twin cities just to check it out.  In the end this may not a just be a bridge it may be a glimpse into what we could see in the near future.