Arthur Ravenel Jr. Bridge

Arthur Ravenel Jr.

Raising financial support for a new eight-lane bridge over the Cooper River was a struggle 20 years in the making, prolonged by the state's insistence that it could not afford such a bridge and by Charleston's reluctance to provide any funds for the project. Several proposals were made for a toll bridge, but the mayors of Charleston and Mount Pleasant objected. When officials revealed in 1995 that the Grace Bridge scored a 4 out of 100 for safety and integrity, retired US Congressman Arthur Ravenel Jr. ran for the South Carolina Senate with a goal of solving the funding problem. He helped to establish the S.C. Infrastructure Bank and worked with local, state, and federal officials to create partnerships that helped to materialize the final funding.

The State Infrastructure Bank (SIB) budgeted $325 million to accompany $96.6 million from the Federal Highway Administration. The project did not become a reality, however, until the SIB agreed to commit to a $215 million federal loan, provided that Charleston County would contribute $3 million a year for 25 years, including an 8.33% sales tax increase, to the federal loan, as well as yearly payments from the SCDOT and State Ports Authority. The overall price of the bridge totaled around $700 million.

Due to his efforts in passing laws for the new bridge's funding, fellow lawmakers voted to name bridge the Arthur Ravenel Jr. Bridge. Some felt that the bridge should not be named after Ravenel, with the head of the South Carolina infrastructure bank saying in 1999, "Certainly, Arthur Ravenel is a fine, decent person, but that bridge is bigger than any one individual and it should reflect all the qualities of the state and not some state senator who happens to be in the Legislature the time the structure is being built."[4]

Arthur Ravenel Jr. Bridge from Charleston

Road deck of the Arthur Ravenel Jr. Bridge

One of the two towers

The Ravenel Bridge is a cable-stayed design with two diamond-shaped towers, each 575 feet (175 m) high. The total length of the structure is 13,200 feet (4,000 m), with the mainspan stretching 1,546 feet (471 m) between the towers. Suspending the deck 186 feet (57 m) above the river are 128 individual cables anchored to the inside of the diamond towers. The roadway consists of eight 12-foot (3.7 m) lanes, four in each direction plus a 12-foot (3.7 m) bicycle and pedestrian path, which runs along the south edge of the bridge overlooking Charleston Harbor and the Atlantic Ocean.

The bridge structure is designed to withstand shipping accidents and the natural disasters that have plagued Charleston's history. The span is designed to endure wind gusts in excess of 300 mph (480 km/h), far stronger than those of the worst storm in Charleston's history, Hurricane Hugo in 1989. Engineers also considered the 1886 earthquake that nearly leveled Charleston. The Ravenel Bridge is designed to withstand an earthquake of approximately 7.4 on the Richter magnitude scale without total failure. To protect the bridge from errant ships, the towers are flanked by one-acre (0.40 ha) rock islands. Ships will run aground on the islands before colliding with the towers.

The bridge was designed for traffic of 100,000 vehicles per day, and forecasted to reach that number in 2030.[5] As of 2018, the bridge was carrying an average of 96,300 vehicles per day.[2] The bridge includes a shared bicycle–pedestrian path named Wonders' Way in memory of Garrett Wonders. Wonders was a US Navy ensign stationed in Charleston and was in training for the 2004 Olympics before he died in a bicycle–vehicle collision.[6] The path was included in design of the new bridge because of grassroots efforts by groups, such as a fifth grade class at a local elementary school.[7]

View from atop the MUSC Parking Garage facing northeast

Groundbreaking on the bridge occurred in 2001 in Mount Pleasant. The bridge was built as a design–build project, meaning that one contract was signed to both design and construct the bridge. This meant that construction could begin even while the design was not yet finalized. The bridge was built by a joint venture of two major construction firms operating under the name Palmetto Bridge Constructors. The joint venture partners were Tidewater Skanska of Norfolk, Virginia and Flatiron Constructors of Longmont, Colorado. The construction joint venture hired Parsons Brinckerhoff to complete the design. T.Y. Lin International provided design review and construction engineering and field inspection services. For the sake of simplifying labor and equipment resources, Palmetto Bridge Constructors actually managed the building of the bridge as five separate projects (the two highway interchanges at either end of the bridge, the two approach spans, and the cable-stayed span) going on simultaneously.

By the summer of 2002, the foundations for the towers and most of the piers were in place, and the rock islands were completed. The steel and concrete towers began to ascend from the islands soon after. Originally, each of the towers was to be topped with a 50-foot (15 m) multicolored LED "beacon", but public opinion caused this plan to be scrapped.

The fast-paced construction schedule led to contractors to use a self-climbing form system to build the towers. The formwork, supplied by PERI, provided a solution to meet the tight construction tolerances and provide safe access for workers laboring hundreds of feet in the air. The self-climbing system meant that the tower cranes did not have to spend time raising the forms after each segment of concrete hardened, and instead could be better used to haul material from barges below.[8]

The first cables were hung from the towers in 2004—as a time-saving measure, this was done before the towers were wholly completed. Sections of the deck were built outward from each of the towers as more cables were hung.

Fireworks celebration to precede the opening of the new bridge, July 2005

The decks of the approaches were taking shape as well. Construction of part of the roadway actually occurred over the top of the old cantilever bridges, which remained open to traffic without interruption.

A ceremony was held in March 2005, when the last slab of the deck was added, thus making the bridge "complete". But paving, installation of lights and signs, and cleanup meant that the bridge would not open for another four months.

Following a week-long celebration that included a public bridge walk, concerts, dinners, and fireworks, the bridge was dedicated and opened on July 16, 2005—one year ahead of schedule and under budget. The bridge was featured on the TV show Extreme Engineering.

The proximity and rivalry between Charleston, South Carolina and Savannah and Brunswick often lead to comparisons between the Arthur Ravenel Jr. Bridge, the Sidney Lanier Bridge, and the Talmadge Memorial Bridge, all of which carry U.S. Route 17. Completed in 2005, the clearance under the Arthur Ravenel Jr. Bridge is actually only one foot (0.30 m) taller than both the Sidney Lanier Bridge and the Talmadge Memorial Bridge. Unlike the Sidney Lanier Bridge and the Talmadge Memorial Bridge, however, the Ravenel Bridge has eight travel lanes; the Talmadge and the Sidney Lanier both have just four lanes. The Ravenel also features a dedicated bike–pedestrian lane. The Talmadge Memorial Bridge also has a similar design as the Alex Fraser Bridge in Vancouver, Canada.

As for the span of the three bridges, the Arthur Ravenel Jr. Bridge is 1,546 feet (471 m), the Sidney Lanier Bridge is 1,250 feet (380 m), and the Talmadge Memorial Bridge is 1,100 feet (340 m).