Ellisville Park Trail System

Technical Description:

• Width: 10-ft.
• Span: 50-ft.
• Style: Capstone^®
• Finish: Weathering Steel
• Decking: Wood

The City of Ellisville’s park system is comprised of a 15- mile long citywide trail network and 10 parks totaling over 230 acres. When they received a municipal park grant to rebuild a half-mile long section of a 30-year-old pedestrian/bike trail, park officials saw an opportunity to resolve a flooding problem. An undersized double- barreled, corrugated steel pipe culvert had been installed at the creek bed in the early 1980s. It flooded routinely during heavy rain events, damaging the trail bed and covering its asphalt surface with debris. The City saw Continental^® prefabricated pedestrian truss steel bridge as the ultimate solution. In 1998, they had also installed a 60’ Continental^® bridge one half mile downstream via an ISTEA funded project.

Limited access to the site required the bridge to be transported in two sections. At several points on the trail, trees reduced clearance to 12 feet or less, and a 20% slope made the trek challenging. Due to the limited trail width and extremely sharp turns, the bridge was fabricated with a center splice. The Capstone^® style structure was unbolted and loaded by section and transported to the creek crossing. After each section of the bridge was loaded onto the transport trailer, the crane was moved to the creek crossing to unload the sections. The bridge was then reassembled and swung into place.

Technical Description:

• Width: 10-ft.
• Span: 50-ft.
• Style: Capstone^®
• Finish: Weathering Steel
• Decking: Wood