Construction of the new Coleman Bridge: Fifth Roebling lecture, 1997

The new Coleman Bridge at Yorktown, Virginia, presented many unique construction challenges. During the Revolutionary War, Cornwallis scuttled his ships exactly where the new bridge was needed. The results of his action 200 years ago was that the designers and builders of the new bridge were forced to develop a construction plan that would not disturb these important artifacts. The designers determined that the bents of the old bridge could be widened to carry the load of the new bridge, and Tidewater Construction Corp. developed an ingenious floating installation technique for replacing the old bridge’s superstructure.