The All-America Bridge was among the first projects that John Hollenbaugh worked on as a young engineer.
He remembers the experience as challenging and fun.
''When you work on a project that size, it sets the stage for your whole career,'' he said.
Now, 35 years later, Hollenbaugh is working on a project to refurbish the bridge he helped design. At 63, he's pleased to outlast the bridge commonly called the Y-Bridge.
''That feels good,'' he said during an interview in his office at URS Corp. in Akron.
Hollenbaugh was with Dalton, Dalton, Little and Newport, a firm later bought by URS, in the mid-1970s when plans were being drawn up for a bridge to replace North Hill Viaduct, which was going to be torn down because it was falling apart. Nine designs were studied, with prices ranging from $19 million to $31 million.
Designers homed in on two possibilities: one made from steel, the other from concrete.
''Everyone was expecting the concrete alternative to win, but steel won,'' Hollenbaugh said, referring to the lower bid of the two designs, which came in at about $25 million.
Hollenbaugh worked on the traffic counts that decided whether a new bridge was needed. He also helped with the preliminary designs for the bridge's piers and expansion joints, calculating the amount of steel needed.
He still has the original design plans for the ''North Main Street Viaduct,'' dated Oct. 20, 1975, in his office. He considered pitching the drawings many times, but is glad he didn't, as he often has referred to them, including during the current improvements to the bridge.
Hollenbaugh can recall no discussion of the bridge needing a fence — the most controversial aspect of the rehab project — during the initial design.
''It would have been very uncommon to put fences on at that time,'' he said. ''I don't think you felt obliged to protect people from jumping off things. Society is just different now.''
With pressure mounting from the public for Akron to add a fence to the Y-Bridge because of people jumping to their deaths, the city contracted with URS in 2005 to study fence designs.
URS found that the bridge could handle the extra weight and wind resistance from a fence and the cost would range from about $877,000 for chain link to about $5.9 million for clear acrylic panels.
Akron wasn't able to secure funding for a fence until March 2009, when it was awarded stimulus money for a project to refurbish the then 28-year-old bridge and add a fence.
With a green light for the project, city officials again wanted URS involved.
''It helped out to go back to them,'' said Mike Teodecki, an engineer with the city who has been working on the project. ''They had the plans — and the original guys who worked on it.''
Hollenbaugh is one of two URS employees who worked on the original Y-Bridge design and the only one in the Akron office. He and other URS engineers specified the criteria for new expansion joints and diaphragms — steel support beams — and for the removal and replacement of the top layer of the bridge's deck. They also looked over shop drawings and developed plans for maintaining traffic.
URS didn't design the fence that will be added to the bridge, but the firm's 2005 study showed that the bridge could support the fence.
Hollenbaugh, who will review the anchorage being used to attach the fence to the bridge to make sure it's adequate, isn't thrilled about the addition. He hopes the fence will look OK and won't detract too much from the view.
''I would prefer if they didn't have to do it,'' he said.
Hollenbaugh is hoping he'll still be with URS when the Y-Bridge's deck needs to be replaced. He estimated that will be in about 10 years, though city officials are counting on the refurbished deck lasting longer. He has designed hundreds of bridges, still enjoys it and wants to continue working into his 70s, ''as long as they will have me.''
''I like building things,'' he said.
Stephanie Warsmith can be reached at 330-996-3705 or swarsmith@thebeaconjournal.com.
