Century Avenue Grade Separation Bridge

In response to increasing traffic demand in a rapidly growing area, the city of Bismarck fast-tracked a project to widen East Century Avenue from a two-lane rural road to a five-lane urban section. The road corridor crosses Hay Creek and a railroad line owned by Canadian Pacific Rail. In addition, pedestrian facilities were deficient and improvements needed at that location.

The railroad and Hay Creek crossing were planned and designed by the City of Bismarck and Kadrmas, Lee & Jackson using “context sensitive design” to enhance the features and aesthetics of the Pebble Creek Golf Course and the Hay Creek Greenway. The bridge design used precast concrete panels that simulated stacked and arched stone. In order to evaluate options for grade and aesthetics, 3-D modeling and presentation graphics provided effective tools to evaluated options and determine a final design.

To construct the bridge structure, plain gray decorative concrete panels were cast offsite for erection by the contractor. The precast panels were poured on a custom urethane form creating the look of stone inset into clean arches. After the panels were in place, painters added the color to make the rock face look authentic.

Congratulations to designers and builders for the unique use of decorative concrete techniques in the vertical wall application. Only they know the stones are not real, but real concrete magic.