Palm Beach County developed Riverbend Park as a wildlife management area to provide hiking/biking, canoeing/kayaking, and equestrian trails along the Wild and Scenic Loxahatchee River. The park is located between Indiantown Road and the Hungryland Slough Canal in Jupiter, Florida. As a part of the park’s development, the County wanted to create public vehicle access to Picnic Island in the center of the park.

WGI designed the 75-foot long by 40-foot wide vehicular entrance bridge. The bridge was constructed utilizing prestressed concrete piles with a concrete pile cap and prestressed concrete bridge decks. A decorative stone façade with rounded river stones was used to match the aesthetic appearance of the rustic park. The stone façade was installed on precast concrete panels to also provide the appearance of an arched stone bridge. Timber pedestrian rails were used above the concrete barrier walls to match the park’s aesthetics.

WGI staff provided structural design services and construction administration services. Design services included preparation of construction design plans, signed and sealed design calculations, preparation of an engineer’s cost estimate, and oversight of the permit application process. Construction services included observation of the concrete prestressing, pile driving, sheet pile installation, reinforcement and concrete placement for the end and intermediate bent pile caps, placement and post-tensioning of the bridge deck units, and installing the decorative stone facade. Field and prestressed yard observations were completed throughout construction so that final certification could be provided.