The Cape Fear Memorial Bridge is a 3,000-foot steel vertical-lift bridge that connects Brunswick and New Hanover Counties in North Carolina. The bridge features a 408-foot long lift span that can be raised 135 feet to allow ships to pass under. When construction completed in 1969 the bridge boasted single largest money appropriation in the State of North Carolina at $15 million dollars.

The harsh humid environment combined with nearly 50 years in service meant that by 2018 the bridge was in dire need of a structural renovation. The original project specifications from the North Carolina Department of Transportation required a multi-coat paint system on all the bridge decking which would have been standard for this type of project in the region. PCL Civil Constructors, Inc. and Bailey Bridges, Inc. partnered together to submit a Value Engineering Change Proposal showing that a Galvanized Coating would provide more corrosion protection while reducing both the short and long term costs of the project. 

North Carolina has an average relative humidity greater than 70% which can wreak havoc on bridge and highway projects. The VEC proposal was able to provide data showing that the galvanized steel would last 6 times longer than the painted steel before first maintenance. This is thanks in part to iron in the steel metallurgically reacting with the zinc to form a tightly-bonded alloy coating. 

Thanks to the renovation work that completed in November of 2019 the Cape Fear Memorial Bridge still stands tall as an iconic symbol of Wilmington, NC. And with the ingenuity of having hot-dip galvanized grating, all 50,000 vehicles that cross the bridge daily can do so with the comfort of knowing she will be around a while.