I-480 Valley View Bridge Catwalk

The $228 million I-480 Valley View Bridge / Design-Build is the largest active project in the State of Ohio and the 4th largest in ODOT history. ODOT engineers came up with a plan to turn 2 bridges into 3 bridges. The I-480 bridge project benefits the 180,000 vehicles who utilize bridges daily.

The Walsh Design team along with ODOT designed and constructed a new 4,150-foot center 4-lane bridge in the median space between the existing eastbound and westbound bridges which helped eliminate traffic congestion. The new bridge required a catwalk to be deigned, fabricated and installed under it in order to allow for inspection over the years to come. The hot-dip galvanizing itself began in 2019 as the galvanizer and fabricator worked side by side to accomplish this large project in Independence (Cleveland), Ohio.

One of the key components that the galvanizer brought to the table besides quality galvanizing, customer satisfaction, on-time delivery was the ability to layout and assemble 24,000 LF of new catwalk over the three-year period at their facility. Normally it would take one-two days per truckload for the team to assemble the multiple grating sizes to the frames for the 30 truckloads per year. Communication was a big key by our inside sales team to the success of his project: daily, weekly calls regarding assembly, shipping details and handling of the multiple truckloads of material delivered to the jobsite.

The 24,000 LF of catwalk was added on the new bridge as well as the renovated bridges. Having a galvanized structure will allow for passengers to have safe commutes for years to come without worrying about the durability to the coating system.