Vanport Bridge

Vanport Bridge
The Vanport Bridge at dusk.
Coordinates	40°40′45″N 80°19′53″W
Carries	4 lanes of I-376
Crosses	Ohio River
Locale	Vanport Township, Pennsylvania
Maintained by	PennDOT
Characteristics
Design	Continuous truss bridge
Longest span	220 m
History
Opened	1968
Location

Heading northbound on I-376 across the bridge

The Vanport Bridge is a four-lane continuous truss bridge that carries Interstate 376 across the Ohio River in Beaver County, Pennsylvania.

History and notable features

A total of $10,476,268 was spent on construction of the 1,762-foot bridge over the Ohio River connecting Vanport and Potter townships, which was opened to traffic on December 23, 1968. As a vital part of the Beaver Valley Expressway it was carrying approximately 30,000 vehicles daily in 1990.

In January 1990, the bridge was closed for three days after corrosion and fourteen cracks in welds were discovered during a routine Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT) inspection. The cracks ranged in size from seven to thirty-four inches. Damage was located in the bottom truss plate that held the steel box beam in the central span. Passenger traffic was rerouted to the Rochester–Monaca Bridge; trucks — to the Shippingport Bridge. The Vanport Bridge remained restricted to traffic until October 2001, when an out of control apple truck crashed into a crew of carpenters, killing five. It reopened shortly after.

See also

•  Transport portal
•  Engineering portal
•  Pennsylvania portal
• List of crossings of the Ohio River