PROJECT
JOURNEY ACROSS THE SKYBRIDGE
by Danielle E. Chater and William R. Maples, CDM Smith, and Patrick Carroll, Solid Waste Authority of Palm Beach County
Driving along the tree-lined lanes of Jog Road, one would not immediately recognize that a new state-of-theart, energy-efficient, waste-to-energy facility is hard at work processing 3000 tons a day of post-recycled solid waste into 100 MW of electricity.
In order to give the public a full understanding of the benefits of the plant, Solid Waste Authority (SWA) of West Palm Beach, Fla., commissioned the Education Center, a LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) platinum building. SWA then took their mission to educate the public one step further by incorporating a guided walking tour so that visitors have a complete experience. The guided tour makes use of the uniquely engineered Skybridge to provide access between the education center and facility’s key buildings and control rooms.
The Skybridge
The Skybridge, a 534-ft-long elevated pedestrian walkway, rises 37 ft above grade and also acts as an educational tool. Its railings are adorned with information about various aspects of the facility, which can be viewed from all vantage points while on the journey across the Skybridge.
The superstructure primarily consists of precast concrete double-tee roof and (cont. next page)
PROFILE
SKYBRIDGE / PALM BEACH, FLORIDA
BRIDGE DESIGN ENGINEER: CDM Smith, Maitland, Fla., and Dura-Stress, Leesburg, Fla.
BRIDGE DESIGN ARCHITECT AND ARCHITECT OF RECORD: CDM Smith, Maitland, Fla.
PRIME CONTRACTOR: CDM Constructors Inc., Maitland, Fla.
PRECASTER: Dura-Stress, Leesburg, Fla.—a PCI-certified producer
CONSTRUCTION COST: $1.84 million
