Golden Gate Bridge Honored For Retrofit Project

Golden Gate Bridge is being honored with a national engineering award for a retrofit project meant to help the iconic span withstand a large earthquake, the American Society of Civil Engineers announced this week.

The second phase of the bridge's seismic retrofit project, which allows the suspension span to withstand up to an 8.3 earthquake on the nearby San Andreas fault, beat out four other projects to be named the winner of the ASCE's 2007 Outstanding Civil Engineering Achievement.

The project included major modifications to southern end of the nearly 70-year-old span, the second-largest suspension bridge in the U.S. The largest piece of the retrofit was the strengthening of two 220-foot tall hollow concrete pylons on the bridge's southern side, according to Mary Currie, spokeswoman for the Golden Gate Bridge, Highway and Transportation District.

The project also included the complete replacement of a 235-foot long wall, which faces the ocean; the transformation of the southern viaduct into a "modern steel structure"; and the modification of the Fort Point arch structure.