MAKING
THENEWS
wiredInUSA - January 2012
9
The George Washington Bridge is to
undergo cleaning of its four main
cables and, for the first time inhistory, have
all of the 592 vertical suspender ropes
replaced.
Spanning the river to link New York City
and New Jersey, the George Washington
Bridgewas designedbyOthmar Ammann
in 1923, and opened to traffic in 1931.
Port Authority officials said the repairs are
long overdue as bridges would usually
have their wires replaced every 70 years
or so. According to the Port Authority, no
more than three of the suspender ropes,
each with 283 wires stretching from the
bridge’s main cables to the roadway,
can be replaced at the same time
without destabilizing the span. Each of
the bridge’s suspender ropes weigh 1,500
to 10,000 pounds, depending on their
length.
The suspension wire will be replaced in
stages and is expected to be completed
in eight years. The next phase of
repair planned for 2013 will be to clean
up the massive anchorages tying down
the bridge’s foundation as well as to
replace broken wires and replace the
dehumidifiers in the anchor chambers.
The bridge’s main cables will be
cleaned by removing their current
zinc-paste wrapping and adding a type
of dehumidifier to the main cables.
New cables for Washington Bridge
