Martin Olav Sabo Bridge

The Martin Olav Sabo Bridge in Minnesota is a cable-stayed bridge with a main span of 215 feet, a west approach of two reinforced concrete deck spans totaling 110 feet, an east approach of seven reinforced concrete deck spans totaling 357 feet, and a tower mast rising 100 feet above the deck. Congressman Martin Olav Sabo served in the Minnesota House of Representatives from 1961 to 1978 and in the U.S. House of Representatives for Minnesota's Fifth District from 1979 to 2006, completing his fourteenth term in Congress in December 2006. Over more than four decades of elective public service, he strongly supported mass transit, pedestrian, and bicycle programs and was instrumental in securing federal funding for the Hiawatha Corridor light rail transit line and for the Midtown Greenway trail system, of which the bridge is a key element. The bridge's main span is supported by back stay cables anchored into large concrete blocks on both sides of the deck, with rock anchors fastening those blocks to limestone bedrock 50 feet below ground to resist uplift forces. Large horizontal compressive forces in the deck are resisted by three underground reinforced concrete struts arranged in a triangular pattern between the main pier and the two earth anchor blocks. Although the idea of cable-stayed bridges dates back to a 1595 sketch in Machinae Novae, this bridge type became practical to engineer and build only in the twentieth century, and the Martin Olav Sabo Bridge was the first of its type constructed in Minnesota. The Midtown Greenway trail system runs more than 5 miles from Minneapolis' Chain of Lakes Regional Park to the Mississippi River along an abandoned freight corridor, providing safe bicycle and pedestrian travel for commuting and recreation with minimal street crossings while connecting neighborhoods, employment centers, schools, and parks and encouraging redevelopment of adjacent land.

Minneapolis, Minnesota · United States