The Lt William Ryan Bridge

15-March-2017

  The Bogota Police have announced that starting on Thursday-16 March the  Lt William Ryan Bridge will be closed for replacement.  The closure will begin at noon.  Construction is schedule to take 10 Months to complete. 
   Also known as the Midtown Bridge connecting  Bogota with Hackensack over the Hackensack River will finally be replaced with a new structure. In October of 2013  the Ryan Bridge needed to be closed in order to replace a number of decking plates that had become damaged due to age.  In 2014 The New Jersey Dept. of  Environment Protection, The Bergen County  Soil Conservation District and the U.S. Coast Guard  clear approval of construction of a replacement bridge. In early 2016 plans for the replacement structure were prepared. Work on the bridge will begin after the drainage project on W. Ft Lee. near the River Club site, is complete.
   The current Truss Box super structure and the approach from the Bogota entrance will be totally dismembered  to the concrete piers and deposed of. The concrete will then be refurbished and strengthen as needed.  The single box truss is scheduled to be replaced with a twin Warren Truss super structure that will meet at the existing centre pivot pier. There will again be an approach deck from  W. Main St. coming out of Bogota.  The new super structure of the Warren Truss will be open at the top with no horizontal members. This will eliminate  the current 15 ft height restrictions,  at this time is not a maximum weight limit to the new bridge.  The sidewalk will be included on the southern face of the bridge deck, with a decorative  fence replacing the chain link fence on the current bridge. New safety barriers will be added and the dedication plaque to Lt William Ryan will be replaced.
   The bridge decking will be a exodermic concrete deck instead of the current open mesh deck being  currently used.  An Exodermic^® (or "composite, unfilled steel grid") bridge deck is comprised of a reinforced concrete slab on top of, and composite with, an unfilled steel grid. This efficient system maximizes the use of the compressive strength of concrete and the tensile strength of steel to provide a lightweight, strong and durable bridge deck. (1) This will reduce he construction time  and weight  of the new deck, while providing a smoother and quieter ride over the bridge. The existing sections of W. Main St in Bogota, and Salem St ext in Hackensack will be regraded and repaved.
   The tentative schedule is to have the bridge closed for 9 months for construction, with a cost of over 4.5 Million dollars. Access to the Bogota Tennis Club, The Bogota Recreation Centre, parking in Olsen Park in Bogota, along with the Ice House and Bowler City in Hackensack will be provided subject to construction. Detour signs will be posted directing traffic to the Lt Harold Dillard  Memorial Bridge to the south or The Anderson St. Bridge in Teaneck to the north.  The current timetable should allow the new bridge to be open before the River Club in Bogota, and Lot"C" development in Hackesack gets fully underway. The timetable and final design are subject to change.  

note #1 from DS Brown Co. of North Baltimore MD.

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