Washington County Truss Bridge

Due to the number of joints, gusset plates and bolts involved with this structure, other corrosion prevention systems were ruled out due to the extreme maintenance costs they would impose over the life of the bridge. Washington County Truss Bridge was designed as a replacement for an existing historic structure. The county required that the replacement be 'in-kind' to the old bridge.

The Ohio DOT is very familiar with hot-dip galvanizing and worked diligently with engineers, the galvanizer and fabricator so that all potential problems, caused by using highly reactive steels, could be worked out ahead of time. The best way to address concerns was through a series of prototypes. The prototyping allowed the galvanizer to find the lowest possible galvanizing temperature to minimize coating growth.

This allowed the engineer and fabricator to design the members and schedule fabrication accordingly. The production of the bridge was time-critical due to the requirement that it be assembled before and after galvanizing.