Utility Bridge Replacement at The University of Toledo
The University of Toledo main campus is built on the north and south sides of the Ottawa River, a seemingly small tributary with a huge impact on operations. The main connecting point for vehicle, pedestrian and utility traffic is a bridge on Stadium Drive. Before replacing the deteriorated structure, the University asked JDRM Engineering to provide a solution to relocating the main communications connections which were all attached to the bridge.
JDRM’s solution encompassed 24 single mode and 48 multimode strands of fiber; 1,800 pair of telephone, 6 coax and Buckeye Cablevision cable which spans the river on a utility bridge. Both ends of the connections were spliced in an enclosure inside manholes for a total of 3600 telephone splices, 144 fiber splices, and 12 coax splices. All this cable linked the technology services between the south and north sides of the campus through a 100-foot truss bridge which weighed 35,000 pounds when fully loaded with the pipe and conduit.
Engineering was completed so construction of the project could be performed during a three-month period. The steam line and communication systems were out of service on campus for ONLY one weekend during spring break.