Ayres Associates used effective design image renderings, creative engineering, and inventive problem-solving to design a structurally sound yet aesthetically pleasing replacement bridge at an entrance to one of Eau Claire, Wisconsin’s signature attractions: Carson Park. The project was a replacement beyond the ordinary, requiring extensive permitting, regulatory involvement, and public outreach.

The American Council of Engineering Companies of Wisconsin presented Ayres Associates a 2019 Engineering Excellence Best of State Award for the project’s design.

The original bridge, built in 1933, had become structurally deficient and functionally obsolete. Its bridge sufficiency rating – a calculation the Wisconsin Department of Transportation uses to help prioritize bridge improvements – was just 40.8 out of a possible 100.

“This was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,” said Dave Solberg, PE, Eau Claire’s city engineer. “We put right in the request for proposal … that it wasn’t going to be just a bridge replacement with a sidewalk on each side. We wanted something our residents would be proud of for generations to come and that would develop into a community gem – which it has.”

Public involvement during the design was critical because of the high-profile nature of the project. Ayres worked extensively on public outreach efforts, developing a tri-lingual (English, Hmong, and Spanish) project website and flyer to share information with affected residents near the project site and creating detailed renderings and “fly-through” animations to help stakeholders visualize the finished product.

Ayres’ designers were able to more than triple the footprint of the causeway. As a result, bicyclists have designated lanes to ride in, anglers have various locations (including Americans with Disabilities Act-compliant accommodations) to fish from, pedestrians no longer have to walk alongside live traffic, kayakers have more headroom, and motorists have a structurally sound passageway into Carson Park.

“It’s been a rather dramatic improvement for the community,” said project manager Dan Sydow, PE, a structural engineer at Ayres. “It was scary how close everything used to be to the road. Now the various spaces are separated and defined.”

Accented with aesthetic enhancements such as simulated stone masonry, an arched façade, decorative railing, limestone seat walls, flagstone pavers, native plantings, and stamped concrete surfaces – and complemented by additional improvements such as environmentally sensitive off-trail fishing accommodations, improved lighting, increased navigational clearance, and wider and terrace-separated recreational trails – the project was indeed a bridge replacement beyond the ordinary.