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Cooper River Bridges Replacement Project
Charleston, South Carolina, U.S.
South Carolina Department of Transportation
Completed July 2005
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Longest Cable-Stayed Bridge in North America
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In South Carolina, the aging pair of U.S. Highway 17 bridges that spanned the Cooper River had grown obsolete, with narrow lanes, limited capacity and substandard ship channel clearance. When the South Carolina Department of Transportation (SCDOT) sought assistance in designing and constructing a replacement crossing, PB helped to provide the solution—the $631 million Cooper River Bridges Replacement Project, which opened July 16, 2005, as the longest cable-stayed bridge in North America as well as the single largest project in SCDOT history.
The 2.5-mile (4-kilometer) structure, which links the town of Mount Pleasant and downtown Charleston, features a main span length of 1,546 feet (471 meters) and provides eight travel lanes plus a 12-foot-wide (3.6-meter) oceanside sidewalk/bikeway. Its two diamond-shaped towers, measuring approximately 575 feet tall, each are protected from ship collision by a large rock island. The bridge's main span provides a navigation opening of 186 feet (57 meters) vertically for a future 1,000-foot (304.8 meter) channel. This greater clearance will enable Charleston, the fourth busiest port in the U.S., to become even more competitive in commercial shipping.
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