According to the Denver Post, the Skyway Bridge is the longest in Colorado at 9,533 feet. It stands nearly 50 feet above grade at its highest point, making it one of the tallest.
For comparison, the highest suspension bridge in the United States (the Royal Gorge Bridge) is only 1,270 feet long.
The Skyway Bridge is part of the N Line, which is a commuter rail line that runs from the Denver Union Station through Commerce City, Northglenn, and Thornton. The bridge is in a tricky location, so it had to be built around several obstacles. For instance, there were other railroad tracks already in the area that it had to go around.
Roads, ditches, a wastewater plant, a highway, a creek, and an oil processing site were also in the way, so the line had to take a less-than-optimal route. In the end, this led to the need for a very long bridge.
The bridge was completed in 2018 and was opened to the public in 2020.
As you'd imagine, the Skyway Bridge cost a lot of money due to its length. In total, it cost around $244 million to build. The Regional Transportation District and the Federal Transit Administration funded this cost.
The construction started in 1982 but wasn't finished until nearly three decades later, in 2018. The bridge wasn't opened to the public until 2020.
There were many reasons the bridge took so many years to get built. For one, the bridge design was extremely complex, and many people were involved. Eight different governments and regional groups had input on the bridge, and it was designed by six engineers. It took them a long time just to agree on a plan.
The bridge also had to avoid hundreds of construction and environmental impacts. Private properties were in the way of where the bridge was originally supposed to go, so that had to be dealt with before construction could really begin.
The bridge also had to cross 11 existing transportation corridors and waterways. There were many obstacles, so the engineers had to be very careful about where they built.
The project was meant to be part of the larger N-Line project. This project faced several funding challenges and delays. The Great Recession stopped the project for a bit, for example.
There is not a single person that designed the Skyway Bridge. Instead, there were many engineers from the Regional Transportation District and the Federal Transit Administration. The team was led by a senior engineer who managed the design. However, the design itself was done by many different people.
Because so many people were involved, the design itself took nearly a year and a half. Many people and governments had to look at the design and sign off on it. Of course, many wanted to make changes along the way.
The Skyway Bridge is used by the N Line, which is a commuter rail service. It connects the Denver Union Station with Thornton. The N Line is expected to serve around 8,100 passengers each day. However, those numbers increased to 9,500 passengers after the COVID-19 pandemic.
The N Line operates at a frequency of 30-minute intervals, offering a 29-minute trip time from end to end.
Many passengers use the line twice each day as they go to and from work.
The Skyway Bridge is the longest bridge in Colorado. It's 9,533 feet, which is about 1.8 miles. While that may seem long, there are plenty of longer bridges throughout the world.
The longest bridge in the world is the Danyand-Kunshan Grand Bridge in China, which is 102 miles long. That's about 50 times as long as the Skyway Bridge. Many bridges in Asia are much longer than the Skyway Bridge.
However, that doesn't mean that the Skyway Bridge isn't a sight to behold.
Maintaining a long bridge is more challenging than a short one, of course. However, the longer the bridge is, the more complicated maintenance gets.
Collecting information about the bridge's conditions and effectiveness is harder. It's much more difficult to inspect a long bridge than a shorter one. Bridges develop structural defects all the time. It's just part of them being outside and in the weather. They won't stay perfect forever. Therefore, even knowing what must be fixed on a longer bridge can be challenging.
When we do know when something needs to be fixed, getting it fixed is also a challenge.
Inspectors and workers often need to access hard-to-reach areas or work in hazardous conditions. When a bridge is very long, the repairs have to take place further away from one end of the bridge. Getting the workers out there is often challenging.
Getting the funds for repairs can also be excessively challenging. Longer bridges have higher maintenance costs and may have a lower service life. Therefore, organizations may be unwilling to put as much money as necessary into their maintenance. When a longer bridge needs ten times as much money to maintain as a shorter bridge, getting that money is tough.
So, why would you build such a long bridge in the first place?
The Skyway Bridge was largely built to complete the N Line commuter rail service. This service provides fast and convenient transportation from the Denver Union Station to Thornton. Thousands of people use it every day to get to work. That's thousands of cars off the road.
The bridge preserves private property, bypassing suburban areas by allowing the trail to take a less-than-optimal route. It also limits environmental impacts that the N Line would have caused otherwise.
The area is known for tons of wildlife you can see along the Skyway. For instance, eagles, foxes, elk, goshawks, red-tailed hawks, bluebirds, kestrels, and even the occasional black bear are often seen.
The Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge is one of the largest urban refugees in the country, and it is located not far from the bridge. Animals that are commonly seen within the refuge include mule deer, coyotes, bison, songbirds, and bald eagles (during the winter, at least).
There are several wildlife crossing points over Colorado Highway 9, which is also nearby. Mule deer, elk, and bears are often seen crossing these paths, too.
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