COWI reaches major milestone on McKinley Bridge 

Los Angeles, CA – COWI, a leading global engineering consultancy has reached a major milestone in California by successfully completing the move of the 290’ steel network tied arch for the McKinley Grade Separation Project in the City of Corona, California. 

The bridge was moved with self propelled modular transporters (SPMTs) from the staging yard to its final position and crossed Sampson Avenue, the Arlington Flood Control Channel, and two BNSF mainline tracks. COWI was responsible for verification of the arch during all stages of construction and move operations, as well as the design of the temporary crossings utilized during the move and temporary trusses to support the arch on the SPMTs. 

The project is set to improve how locals and visitors travel through McKinley Street as currently traffic is stopped two hours and 35 minutes cumulatively every day while the gate is down for passing trains. This number is expected to increase to four hours and 20 minutes by the year 2035.The project will build an arch bridge to elevate McKinley Street over the BNSF railroad tracks and Arlington Channel. 

Thomas Dahlgren, President, COWI in North America, said: “It’s great to be part of a project that will help to relieve congestion, improve mobility and safety for both motorists and pedestrians, and improve air quality and noise in the area. 

“We have leveraged our past project experience in 3D analysis and Bridge Information Modeling to verify bridge stability, arch capacity and hanger stresses for the differential movements imparted during the move. The accelerated bridge construction technique 

utilized for this project limited impacts to the traveling public and rail operations, allowing the bridge to be erected over train and vehicular traffic in a single weekend closure.” 

Construction activities began in early 2022 with an anticipated completion date in late 2024/early 2025.