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Restoration
of San Antonio’s Hays
Street BridgeCourtesy
of Sparks Engineering, Inc |
Hay
Street Bridge HistoryThe
1881/1910 Hays Street Bridge is a viaduct consisting of two wrought iron truss
spans (one Phoenix Whipple 225-ft span, and one Pratt 130-ft span), and approximately
1000-linear feet of concrete approaches.
In 1910, the City of San
Antonio required the Galveston, Harrisburg & San Antonio Railway Co. (eventually
part of Southern Pacific) to construct a viaduct over the railroad tracks at Hays
Street. The railway company relocated the two truss spans from elsewhere on its
lines.
Records of the Phoenix Bridge Company archived at the Hagley Library
in Wilmington, Delaware show that the Whipple truss dates from 1881 and was reconstructed
from one or more salvaged spans over the Nueces River west of San
Antonio. These records include entries in the company’s customer index as
well as copies of the 1910 repair shop drawings showing replacement joint blocks,
bearing seats, and lateral bracing struts.
The Whipple truss span is a
Phoenix patent design using the now rare Phoenix segmental wrought iron columns
with cast-iron joint blocks. The Pratt span has Phoenix-branded components, including
the floor beams. Both spans were widened from about 16-feet to the current 25-feet.
The bridge is planned for rehabilitation as a bicycle and pedestrian facility
by the City of San Antonio, using a Transportation
Enhancement grant from the Texas Department of Transportation. Sparks Engineering,
Inc. is the design consultant for the project. Plans and specifications were completed
in November 2006 and the project is scheduled to begin construction in the fall
of 2008.
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Hays
Street Bridge
Photo courtesy of Sparks Engineering, Inc |
Hays
Street Bridge downtown San Antonio. Currently closed.
(January 2007)
Photos courtesy Vitaly Altoiz, 2005 |
Hays
Street Bridge at dusk
Photos courtesy Vitaly Altoiz, 2005 |
View
of downtown San Antonio from Hays Street Bridge
Photos
courtesy Vitaly Altoiz, 2005 | |
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