Natchez Trace Parkway Bridge over Tennessee Route 96

This double-arch precast bridge is a part of the Natchez Trace Parkway, the historic 450-mile trade route between Nashville and Natchez, Mississippi. The bridge is 1,572 feet long and carries the two-lane parkway 155 feet above Route 96 and a heavily wooded valley. To minimize damage to the valley sides and floor, PCL proposed a method of building the bridge without using supporting falsework for the arches during segment erection.

The arches are formed with 122 hollow precast boxes. The boxes weigh 29 to 45 tons and were positioned using a Linkbelt 714 crane in either crawler or ringer configuration. The arch segments were erected in a cantilever manner and were temporarily supported by cable stays. The two arches span 582 feet and 462 feet. The deck was constructed using the balanced cantilever method, working from the piers and the center of each arch.

A superstructure precasting yard was set up nine miles from the site, and two shortline beds were used, one for arch segments and one for deck segments.