Tampa Steel Plant Builds Arches for Dallas Bridge
TAMPA, Florida (AP) – A Tampa steel plant is building two giant arches that will tower nearly 300 feet over a Dallas river.
The arches are part of the new Margaret McDermott Bridge over Dallas’ Trinity River. The $40 million project will allow Tampa Steel Erecting Co. to hire at least 25 more people.
Vice President Jeffrey Ames tells The Tampa Tribune that all 80 of the company’s current employees are working on the project.
The white arches will soar over new bicycle and pedestrian walkways that will run along each side of the Interstate 30 bridge. The bridge is part of an $800 million bridges overhaul in Dallas.
Tampa Steel has built bridges nationwide and the Spaceship Earth dome at Disney’s Epcot. The arches were designed by Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava.
Raw video of the construction of the Margaret McDermott Bridge in Dallas, Texas from Aug. 11, 2015.
Tampa Steel Erecting Company is Florida’s oldest “surviving” structural steel Erector-Fabricator. Certified by the American Institute of Steel Construction and the American Welding Society they specialize in construction of steel buidling structures, simple steel bridges, and major steel bridges. The Company has received several accolades and has been involved in many notable projects in its long and successful history. Some of the Company’s more notable projects include the fabrication and erection of structural steel for the 39-story One Tampa City Center, Spaceship Earth and The Living Seas at Disney’s EPCOT Center, and arched banana shaped pipe trusses for Airside F at Tampa International Airport. Some notable fabrication only projects are 14,000 tons of steel for Tampa Electric’s Big Bend Power Station #4, 1.4 miles of elevated people mover girders for the Omni Extension in Dade County Florida and the Acosta Bridge approach ramps for the Florida Department of Transportation.