Illinois construction gallery May 2010

The cable stayed portion of the bridge will be just over four football fields in length.
With a main span of 1,500 feet, this bridge will be the third longest cable-stayed bridge in the U.S.
The two longest cable-stayed bridges in the U.S. are the John J. Audubon in Louisiana, which will be finished in 2010, and the Arthur Ravenel in South Carolina.
The New Mississippi River Bridge will be 400 feet tall, just two-thirds the height of the Arch.
The cable-stayed portion of the bridge will require 8 Million pounds of reinforcing steel – equivalent to the weight of 363 school buses.
The Mississippi River Bridge will require 14.8 million pounds of girders – equivalent to the weight of 925 elephants.
The total project will cost $640 million – equivalent to one dollar bills laid end to end circling the equator two and a half times.
Concrete does not dry. It cures. Curing is the hardening process that occurs because of the chemical reaction between cement and water.

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