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How much does a bridge cost?
Fortunately, Excel bridge combines the conceptualization, design and fabrication into one step, reducing your total costs by up to 2/3. Added benefits include Excel's use of steel truss bridges which can clear much longer spans than girder types, virtually eliminating the need for piers.
Excel's design/build prefabrication efficiencies work together to reduce project time lines and sometimes tighten on-site construction to less than a week. In fact, the bridge structure usually only requires one to six hours to erect.
And every bridge we construct is a complete manufactured, finished product inclusive of a ten year warranty.
Following are basic components that influence the costs of bridge. Please call for an accurate estimate (800-548-0054).
Pre-fabricated bridges, like most custom manufacturing, vary tremendously in cost depending on the size and features chosen.
Equally important is how and what combination of highway bridge codes (AASHTO) or building codes (AISC, IBC, UBC or BOCA) are applied
to the structure. There is no national agreement on what codes, loads, and stresses should apply, so it is done per the collaborative
judgments from owners, consultants and local governments.
All examples below are based on pickup truck or ambulance-sized vehicle capacities. (See "bigger vehicles" section below.) These estimates are for clear span bridges delivered to you, using steel and fuel pricing from August of 2005. All Excel bridges are custom designed to fit your needs and desires. Please note these numbers are only to help you grasp the scope of possible costs. Call to discuss your particular project for more accurate estimates.
Here are some over-simplified examples for the cost of delivered bridges NOT INCLUDING abutment or crane costs:
Typical 30' to 120' bridges made from weathering steel, with wood or concrete decks at 6' to 12' wide,
may range from $500 per linear foot (plf) up to $900 plf.
Typical bridges the same as above except clear spanning 125' to 180' may range from $800 plf to $1400 plf.
Typical box truss bridges, usually fenced on all sides for a highway overpass, cost about 40% more than the above examples.
Important Variables: (Click here for more in depth information)
- Painted bridges are usually 15-25% more over weathering steel
Painted Bow Truss
- Bow truss can add about 10-20% over parallel chord trusses
- Girder types with a covering of wood like the Excel "Macho Combo" above can add 10-15% over the truss type, but can be up to 90% higher as the length approaches 100'.
- AASHTO (DOT) code instead of AISC for the design stresses typically adds about 18%.
Longitudinally spliced bridge nested for shipment
- Wider bridges with decks from 13' to 16' are usually 20% to 40% higher cost.
Full Highway load, also called HS-20 loading
- Bigger Vehicles: Applying a pickup truck (5 ton) vehicle load usually has very little effect on cost. Vehicles of 6-7.5 tons do typically cause a noticeable bump up in price. Trucks for fire, propane, construction, etc., will significantly increase costs.
- The 100-year flood event. You and the local authorities must decide how big a flood event you are designing to avoid or withstand.
- American Disabilities Act sometimes causes small additional costs by adding features, but sometimes causes bigger problems.
- Clearance over traffic lanes or rail road cars - similar and related to one or both of the points above.
(Click here for more in depth information)
Other significant costs that are outside the scope of Excel Bridge's work are:
- The contractor to build the abutments (and piers if needed) and set the bridge
- Environmental issues. These can impact your timeline, pier possibilities and more
- The engineer and/or architect to help you with the above plus design of abutments, permits, utility coordination, hydrology, soil analysis and aesthetics.
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