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Application

Municipal and government bridges

Cities, counties, parks departments, school districts, and the engineers and contractors who bid their work.

Published spans
20 to 72 ft
Widths
6, 8 and 10 ft
Rated
90 PSF / 16,000 lb
A wide view of the park with the black arched pedestrian bridge on the left, a Route 66 shield sign at the centre, and the weathered steel of the historic through-truss bridge on the right.
Sapulpa, Oklahoma: the new pedestrian crossing on the left, Rock Creek Bridge No. 18 on the right.

What city and county crossings usually call for

Two things have to line up

A municipal crossing has an engineering answer and a procurement answer, and the project moves at the speed of whichever is further behind. The bridge itself is the straightforward half.

Roadrunner spans are engineered to AASHTO LRFD. Drawings are stamped and sealed for the project jurisdiction on request. Everything is made in the USA, which is frequently a condition of the funding rather than a preference.

Which family, and why

Public work usually lands in one of two places. The Pedestrian family spans 40 to 72 ft at 8 and 10 ft wide, rated 90 PSF, and covers a public walkway or a park crossing at length. The Utility Truss family spans 20 to 72 ft at the same widths, rated 8 ton, and covers anything a maintenance vehicle, a mower crew, or a service truck has to use.

The distinction is worth settling early because it is not really about the span. It is about whether a vehicle ever crosses, and on municipal property the honest answer is usually yes eventually.

Planning around the schedule

A public project is normally committed to a completion date before anyone has priced a bridge. The twelve-week figure above is the whole path from evaluation to installed, not the fabrication window, and the parts of it that move are site evaluation and design.

The set is often about a day once the site is prepared. Abutments, approach work, and crane access are what the surrounding schedule has to accommodate, and they belong in the contractor’s sequence rather than in ours.

What to send us

A location, a span, what has to cross it, and any load rating or width the jurisdiction has already specified. If a submittal package has a deadline, say so at the start.

Crossings like these

Finished crossings in this kind of setting. Each shows one bridge in one configuration, and none of them is a rating or a promise about yours.

  • A new arched steel bridge with black railings on concrete abutments over a rock-lined swale, with the rusted truss of a historic highway bridge rising behind it.
    Sapulpa, Oklahoma: the new span and Bridge 18.
  • A black steel truss bridge carrying a concrete path across a grassed swale in a park, with houses beyond the treeline.
    Greenville Parks and Recreation, in service.
  • A circular steel medallion set into a bridge truss, cut with the outline of Texas and a letter G, painted green and blue against the black steel.
    The city's artwork, cut into the truss.
  • The arched pedestrian bridge seen across the park, with a brick plaza wall and an orange and yellow shade sail in the foreground.
    Sapulpa, Oklahoma: the crossing from the plaza side.

Worth settling before you order

  • Procurement usually needs the paperwork before it needs the bridge. Vendor setup, a W-9, insurance certificates, and a submittal package are the path, and starting them alongside the design rather than after it saves weeks.
  • Drawings are stamped and sealed for the project jurisdiction on request. Which states the engineer of record is licensed in is worth confirming for your jurisdiction specifically.
  • Every bridge is fabricated in the USA, which matters where a funding source carries a domestic sourcing condition. Grant-funded work often does.
  • A public crossing is used by people who did not choose it and cannot be asked to be careful. Railing, deck surface, approach grade, and sight lines deserve the same attention as the span.
  • A twelve-week project timeline is realistic: about a week of site evaluation, one to three weeks of design, five to six weeks of fabrication, and two to three weeks of installation. Public schedules are usually set long before the bridge is ordered, so this is worth putting in the plan early.

In the field

Built for this

Questions that come up

Can you provide stamped engineering drawings?

Yes. Designs are stamped and sealed for the project jurisdiction, ready for plan review and permit. Pedestrian models are engineered to the AASHTO LRFD Guide Specifications for the Design of Pedestrian Bridges. Tell us the jurisdiction early, because it shapes the design rather than getting added at the end.

What size bridge do I need?

Measure the crossing bank to bank, then add bearing length at each end. Standard spans run 20 to 72 feet. Width follows what crosses it: 4 feet for foot traffic, 8 feet for a single vehicle, 10 feet for two-way cart traffic or maintenance trucks.

How long does bridge installation take?

A set is often completed in about a day once the site is prepared and access is in place. The catalog puts installation at two to three weeks including pre-construction coordination, delivery, setting sections on abutments, and a final walkdown with you. Site prep is the variable.

Does a pedestrian bridge need a concrete foundation?

Usually it needs prepared abutments, and concrete is recommended for many applications though it may not always be required. Longer pedestrian spans put real load into each bearing point, so the abutment design is part of the stamped engineering package rather than something decided on site.

Read every answer

Guides for this crossing

Start with your crossing

Seven questions about the span and what has to get over it, and you get the families that fit and the ones that do not. Or send it to us and an engineer will read it.

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