{"id":92784,"date":"2025-05-16T10:46:33","date_gmt":"2025-05-16T14:46:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/?p=92784"},"modified":"2025-05-27T10:20:16","modified_gmt":"2025-05-27T14:20:16","slug":"new-footbridge-placed-over-douglas-road","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/05_16_2025\/new-footbridge-placed-over-douglas-road","title":{"rendered":"New Footbridge Placed Over Douglas Road"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A $3.4 million project to more directly connect Main Campus to The University of Toledo&#8217;s engineering complex and improve campus safety took a major step forward Thursday with the installation of the footbridge span over Douglas Road.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-92786\" src=\"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Footbridge-05152025-3969a.jpg\" alt=\"A white crane truck lifts the blue 78-foot-wide pedestrian bridge span into place over Douglas Road\" width=\"600\" height=\"338\" srcset=\"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Footbridge-05152025-3969a.jpg 748w, https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Footbridge-05152025-3969a-300x169.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Pat Blevins, left, manager of structural maintenance for Main Campus, and Jason Toth, senior associate vice president for administration, watch as a crane prepares to set the pedestrian bridge span into place. Contractors broke ground on the project in July and have been working since to build the bridge towers, ramps and stairs.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-92787\" src=\"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Pat-Blevins-Jason-Toth-05152025-3934.jpg\" alt=\"Pat Blevins, manager of structural maintenance for Main Campus, and Jason Toth, senior associate vice president for administration, stand on Douglas Road talking as a crane lifts pedestrian bridge span into place in front of them.\" width=\"600\" height=\"338\" srcset=\"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Pat-Blevins-Jason-Toth-05152025-3934.jpg 748w, https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Pat-Blevins-Jason-Toth-05152025-3934-300x169.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Contractors work to ease the 78-foot-long bridge span into place. Construction will continue at the site over the next few weeks, including pouring the concrete bridge decking. That work, which is currently scheduled for Tuesday, May 20, will require another closure of Douglas Road from 6 a.m. to 4 p.m.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-92789\" src=\"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Footbridge-05152025-5935.jpg\" alt=\"Construction workers wearing hardhats and reflective safety vests work to secure the bridge in place. \" width=\"600\" height=\"338\" srcset=\"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Footbridge-05152025-5935.jpg 748w, https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Footbridge-05152025-5935-300x169.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>The bridge span was prefabricated in two sections off-site. UToledo took delivery of the two pieces \u2014 which together weigh 40,485 pounds \u2014 last month. Contractors maneuvered them into place and bolted them together Thursday before lifting the assembled bridge atop its anchors.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-92788\" src=\"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/DJI_20250515094548_0204_D-300x169.jpeg\" alt=\"A drone shot shows the construction site for UToledo's new footbridge over Douglas Road from above, as a crane moves one of the bridge sections into place.\" width=\"600\" height=\"338\" srcset=\"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/DJI_20250515094548_0204_D-300x169.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/DJI_20250515094548_0204_D.jpeg 748w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>A pedestrian crosses the closed section of Douglas Road after the bridge was securely anchored in place. Once finished, the bridge will provide faculty, staff, students and visitors a new way to get from the engineering complex to Savage Arena, the Glass Bowl and the heart of Main Campus. Currently the only designated crossing for Douglas Road between University Hills Boulevard and Dorr Street is the crosswalk at Oakwood Avenue and East Rocket Drive, about a quarter mile south of where the bridge is being installed.<\/p>\n<p>Work is expected to be complete by the end of June.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-92792\" src=\"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Footbridge-05152025-6095a.jpg\" alt=\"A pedestrian wearing UToledo gear crosses the closed section of Douglas Road in front of the new pedestrian bridge. \" width=\"600\" height=\"338\" srcset=\"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Footbridge-05152025-6095a.jpg 748w, https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Footbridge-05152025-6095a-300x169.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A new, 78-foot pedestrian bridge over Douglas Road was set into place Thursday, a major step toward completing the $3.4 million project to better connect UToledo&#8217;s campus and improve pedestrian safety. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":92786,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[50,1,7],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92784"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=92784"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92784\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":92794,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92784\/revisions\/92794"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/92786"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=92784"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=92784"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=92784"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}