Construction Complete on the North Atwater Non-Motorized Multimodal Bridge in Los Angeles, California
Construction is now complete on the North Atwater Non-Motorized Multimodal Bridge linking Griffith Park to Atwater Village in Los Angeles, California. The 325-foot cable-stayed bridge was designed with a 125’ high mast to support the cables while accommodating pedestrian, cyclic, and even equestrian traffic! There are several horse stables on the east bank of the Los Angeles River at Atwater Village, which was proclaimed by the residents as the “Atwater Village Equestrian District.” The bridge will allow them direct access to the many horse trails located in nearby Griffith Park on the west bank of the river. This bridge features “horse friendly rubber pavers” and is likely the first cable-stayed equestrian bridge in the entire world!
Stinger Bridge & Iron chose R. J. Watson Disktron bearings for the North Atwater Bridge, also known locally as the “La Kretz” bridge, which is owned by the City of Los Angeles Bureau of Engineering. The consulting engineer of record for this project was T.Y. Lin International along with Buro Happold.
T.Y. Lin International designed this bridge to be very lightweight due to its cable-stayed design. On average, the disc bearings were designed to have a vertical service load of 59 – 520 kips, a horizontal service load of 10% of the vertical load, and a service rotation of 0.023 radians. The bearings will allow for a range of 4.25” to 5.5” of longitudinal displacement and 2” of transverse displacement. One of the 6 bearings was designed to accommodate 520 kips of horizontal load, and 0 vertical load! There is also a system of tuned mass dampers on the bridge that are designed to reduce the magnitude of vibration from severe equestrian load. Taylor Devices also supplied Shock Transmission units for this structure.
Reyes Construction is the contractor of record for the 325-foot-long cable-stayed bridge with two 12-foot-wide pathways. Construction began in Spring 2018 and was completed in February of 2020. This project received a “National Recognition” award in 2020 from the American Consulting Engineer’s Council, and an “Honor” award in 2020 from the California District of the American Consulting Engineer’s Council.