Maurice J Tobin Bridge Case Study

The Maurice J Tobin Bridge is also known as the Mystic River Bridge. It is a cantilever truss bridge that runs more than two miles from Boston to Chelsea and over the Mystic River (in Massachusetts). The Tobin Bridge is the largest bridge in New England, and it is run by the Massachusetts Department of Transportation. The Tobin also carries Route 1. It replaced the Chelsea Street Bridge when it was built between 1948-1950; and opened to traffic on February 2, 1950. Traffic flows in both directions with the Northbound flow of traffic on the lower level, and the southbound traffic on the upper level. The Tobin stands tall at 1,525 feet, and opens to traffic at a 36 feet wide roadway. It stretches to 11,906 feet in total. There are 36 approach spans to the North and 32 to the South. The Tobin Bridge had controversial happenings about the tolls. There was much debate about whether or not to keep them. The bridge was originally operated by Massachusetts Port Authority. The original plan was to only have the tolls to pay back the $27 million it took to build it. However, the plans were not fulfilled. Instead, the tolls were increased to 25 cents to cover the closing of the Northbound toll plaza in the 1980s. Then, in the 1990’s, the tolls were increased even larger to help cover the payment for “The Big Dig”. October 26, 2016, the toll payment …show more content…
In 1973, a gravel truck struck a support and collapsed a part of the bridge; which took 2 years to fix. January 4, 1990, a racial hoaxer and double murderer named Charles Stuart jumped and committed suicide from the bridge. To this day, many people attempt suicide on the Tobin Bridge. Mental illness does not get enough attention. 1-800-273-8255… I have picked this bridge in particular because I made my actual bridge project the same type as the tobin bridge. The best way to make a bridge is to use the triangle shaped method because it is the strongest