First pier for longest cable-stayed bridge
At the end of this month, Palmetto Bridge Constructors will start pouring the concrete base for the first pier of the Cooper River Bridge in Charleston, South Carolina. Construction of the pier will commence immediately after that.
It was July 2001 when this joint venture of HBG Constructors and Skanska subsidiary Tidewater was awarded the design-and-build contract for the 470-metre long bridge link by the South Carolina Department of Transportation. The contract value is around US $531 million, of which HBG’s share is about 212 million. Charleston lies on a peninsula, where space is at a premium. The bridge over the Cooper River links the city with the growth centre of Mount Pleasant and will replace two seriously outdated bridges built in 1929 and 1966. The new bridge has been designed for a service life of a hundred years, and to withstand the full force of anything nature is likely to throw at it during that time.