Lamar Boulevard Bridge | |
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 Lamar Boulevard Bridge over Lady Bird Lake, viewed from the southwest | |
| Coordinates | 30°15′56″N97°45′23″W / 30.2656°N 97.7564°W /30.2656; -97.7564 |
| Carries |  Loop 343 (Lamar Boulevard) |
| Crosses | Lady Bird Lake (Colorado River) |
| Locale | Austin, Texas United States |
| Owner | State of Texas |
| ID number | 142270011312065 |
| Characteristics | |
| Design | Arch bridge |
| Material | Reinforced concrete |
| Total length | 659 feet (201 m) |
| Width | 49 feet (15 m) |
| Longest span | 110 feet (34 m) |
| No. of spans | 6 |
| Piers in water | 5 |
| No. oflanes | 4 |
| History | |
| Architect | Cage Brothers and L. A. Turner |
| Construction start | March 27, 1941 |
| Construction cost | $303,900 |
| Opened | July 15, 1942 (1942-07-15) |
Lamar Boulevard Bridge | |
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| Coordinates | 30°15′56″N97°45′23″W / 30.26556°N 97.75639°W /30.26556; -97.75639 |
| Architectural style | Art Deco |
| NRHP reference No. | 94000678 |
| Added to NRHP | July 7, 1994 |
TheLamar Boulevard Bridge is a historicarch bridge carryingTexas State Highway Loop 343 (Lamar Boulevard) overLady Bird Lake indowntownAustin, Texas, United States. The bridge features six open-spandrel concrete arches spanning 659 feet (201 m) and carries tens of thousands of vehicles daily across the lake.[1] Completed in 1942, the Lamar Boulevard Bridge was the second permanent bridge to cross theColorado River (after theAnn W. Richards Congress Avenue Bridge), and one of the lastArt Deco-style open-spandrel concrete arch bridges built in Texas.[2] The bridge was named an Austin Landmark in 1993 and added to theNational Register of Historic Places in 1994.[3]
In the late 1930s,Austin had greatly outgrown itsoriginal town plan on the north bank of theColorado River. In 1939, the city planned a new major north–south thoroughfare to run to the west of theTexas State Capitol and connect the city's western housing developments. This new street, eventually named Lamar Boulevard, would roughly parallel the course ofShoal Creek, reaching the river's edge near the creek's mouth. On the south bank, the boulevard would continue onward to join what was thenTexas State Highway 20, leading toFredericksburg, Texas. As the city began building the boulevard, the Texas Highway Department (now theTexas Department of Transportation) was charged with designing and building a bridge to carry Highway 20 across the river.[3]
Construction began on March 27, 1941, and the bridge was completed and opened to traffic on July 15, 1942, at a total cost of $303,900 (equivalent to $6,500,000 in 2024). At that time, the bridge was left withoutstreet lights, perhaps because of material shortages relating toWorld War II; these were later added in 1955. The construction ofLonghorn Dam in 1960 transformed the river beneath the bridge into Town Lake (now known asLady Bird Lake), raising the water level to just below the bottoms of the arches.[3] The view of the Texas State Capitol from the bridge became one of theCapitol View Corridors protected under state and local law from obstruction by tall buildings in 1983.[4]
On July 7, 1994, the bridge was added to theNational Register of Historic Places in recognition of its architectural significance and its continuing importance to Austin's transportation infrastructure.[3] Today, the bridge still carries Lamar Boulevard (now designated part ofTexas State Highway Loop 343) across the Colorado and supports substantial pedestrian and vehicular traffic daily; a 2011 study by the Downtown Austin Alliance asserted that the bridge now experiences more than twice the traffic volume it was designed for.[5]
The bridge was built with no dedicatedbicycle lanes and with narrowsidewalks separated from the street only by low curbs. In the 1990s, the site became notorious for road accidents involving cyclists and pedestrians. The City of Austin explored possibilities for widening the bridge to add space for non-automotive traffic, but theTexas Historical Commission opposed these proposals out of a desire to preserve the bridge's historic design.[6] This conflict eventually led in 2001 to the construction of theJames D. Pfluger Pedestrian and Bicycle Bridge, situated 200 feet (61 m) to the east of the Lamar bridge.[7][8]
The Lamar Boulevard Bridge is an open-spandreldeck arch bridge made of poured-in-placereinforced concrete. It crosses the Colorado River with six identical 110-foot (34 m) spans, supported by five concretepiers on the river bed and by concreteabutments at the ends. Thedeck carries four roadway lanes, flanked by a sidewalk and metalbalustrade on either side. The piers (originally visible, but now largely submerged) and pedestrianguardrails showArt Deco details, such as verticalfluting, which indicate the period of the bridge's construction.[3]
The piers stand on spread-footing foundations resting on limestonebedrock. Each span rests on two parallel concretesegmental-arch ribs, each 8.5 feet (2.6 m) wide and 2.25 feet (0.69 m) thick, rising to a clearance of 19 feet (5.8 m) above thespringline. A series of slender vertical columns rises through the open spandrels to support smaller longitudinal arches and transverse floorbeams immediately beneath the deck. The floor beamscantilever roughly 7 feet (2.1 m) beyond the piers and columns to support the sidewalks and balustrades.[3]
The pedestrian guardrails on the approaches to the bridge are solid concrete panels, while those along the deck take the form of tubular steel railings, linked by vertical steel bars and supported by concrete columns. Eight of these 12-by-15-inch (30 cm × 38 cm) columns rise from each deck span, punctuated by taller, heavier columns above the piers, which are built to support street lights.[3]
Media related toLamar Boulevard Bridge at Wikimedia CommonsCrossings of theColorado River | ||||
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