Pine Creek Rail Trail Extension

The project involved the design of a 603 ft. long, 11 span pedestrian bridge to extend the Pine Creek Trail over S.R. 287 just north of Wellsboro, PA. The spans consisted of six continuous composite curved steel I-girder spans, four continuous composite straight steel I-girder spans, and one prefabricated composie steel truss span. Three of the approach spans on each side of the main span formed a complete 360 degree circular alignment. Design of the steel curved girders required the use of a 3D Analysis computer program developed by BSDI.

Larson Design Group (LDG) also had to overcome numerous geometric constraints to stay within the PA DCNR’s existing right-of-way and provide a structure with at least 17.5 ft. of vertical roadway clearance over S.R. 287, as well as at least 30 ft. of horizontal clearance from the edge of S.R. 287 and ramp back down to original grade on the near approach to allow a local farmer to maintain existing access to adjacent fields. This was accomplished through the use of a complete 360 degree circular alignment on an eight percent slope. This circular alignment required LDG to design a multi-level pier that could carry one level of traffic on Pine Creek Trail directly over another level of traffic.