Reusing arches to widen Cedar Canyon Bridge

Here’s a trivia question: What Arizona bridge was doubled in width using an existing bridge arch?

The answer? "Cedar Canyon Bridge."

So, how exactly was this done and why? Let’s review a bit of history.

The Cedar Canyon Bridge, located about 15 miles east of Show Low on US 60, was originally a 180-foot span ribbed girder arch bridge completed in September 1937. Its total length was 250 feet; it measured 24 feet in width. In 1994, after 57 years of taking traffic, ADOT determined the bridge needed to be widened and the deck rehabilitated.

Instead of using new arches for the widening, an arch from the identical Corduroy Creek Bridge,  which is about five miles from the Cedar Canyon Bridge, was placed parallel to the Cedar Canyon Bridge arch.

This archived ADOT webpage shares the lengths went to to maintain the bridge’s appearance:

“Every effort was made to maintain the appearance of the original structure while rehabilitating the Cedar Canyon Bridge. As many pieces of the original bridge as possible were reused, including the tower fasciae. The traffic barriers were reconstructed using concrete jersey barriers with the original barrier pattern inset into the back face. In addition, button head bolts were used for the new connections to simulate the appearance of the original riveted connections.”

Moving the Corduroy Creek Bridge arch was a big lift.

The arch was moved in a single piece to save time and money. According to this report, “The contractor used two cranes to lift the arch at Corduroy onto a tractor driven dolly system. [US 60] was closed for two hours as the truck mounted arch was driven to the Cedar Canyon site and then lowered onto the new skewback foundations. Once the arch was in place, the new superstructure and deck were constructed.”

The second phase of rehabilitation, according to the archive webpage, consisted of routing the traffic onto the widened half, removing the deck, floor beams and stringers from the original Cedar Canyon Bridge, and then replacing them with a strengthened system.

Today, the widened Cedar Canyon Bridge carries two-way traffic on one of the most scenic sections of US 60.