Project Impact. This striking vehicular and pedestrian bridge that marks the entranceway between Washington, D.C., and Prince George’s County celebrates Maryland’s state tree, the White Oak.
Features & Design Context. The bridge includes two 150-foot cast-in-place parapet walls and two six-foot cast-in-place concrete columns. These columns, featuring the leaf of the White Oak in two-inch raised relief, are capped with White Oak acorns of heroic size.
Techniques & Requirements.
Fabricated a urethane rubber form liner reinforced in a fiberglass shell for the column. Made in 2-3 pieces, the fiberglass shell was constructed in a way to enable the contractor to form against it and cast the columns in place with little difficulty. Also made the acorn cap form liner that the contractor used to precast the two caps prior to mounting them on each column.
The interior faces of the parapet walls were created using urethane rubber simulated-stone form liners.
Urethane rubber form liners were made to re-create the designer’s continuous leaf pattern on the inside of the entryway and parapet walls.
