Brockport, NY — June 13, 2025
When the ceremonial ribbon fluttered across the Erie Canal, Brockport residents gained far more than a shortcut. The new Brockport Guard Gate Pedestrian Bridge delivers an ADA-friendly link between the Village’s north side and SUNY Brockport, closing the last gap in the Empire State Trail and capping the canal’s bicentennial with a community-minded centerpiece.
A Practical Problem and an Elegant Solution
Early in design, Arup’s engineers realized the bridge’s slender single-span geometry would impose uplift forces on its bearings—even under everyday pedestrian loading. Conventional devices sized for 26-kip vertical service loads simply aren’t expected to see similar magnitudes in tension, nor to tolerate service rotations approaching ±0.05 rad.
To keep the deck thin and the approach grades gentle, general contractor Hohl Industrial Services turned to disk bearings, specifically RJ Watson’s uplift resisting variation. Four compact units now handle:
| Service Action | Capacity |
| Vertical load | 26 kips |
| Horizontal load | 2.6 kips |
| Uplift (service / strength) | 18 kips / 21 kips |
| Rotation | ±0.015 rad |
| Longitudinal / Transverse movement | 3.0 in / 0.125 in |
Polytron 62D discs, #8 mirror-finish stainless sliding plates, and ASTM A709 Grade 50 steel give each bearing the muscle to work in both compression and tension while riding out New York’s freeze-thaw extremes. That performance margin let the design team keep the bridge lines clean—no bulky tie-downs, no extra girder depth, and, most importantly, no compromise to the 1:20 ADA ramp slopes.
Serpentine Geometry, Historic Setting
Instead of a straight crossing, the 430-foot* structure traces a gentle S-curve around the historic canal guard gate, creating pocket plazas for seating and interpretive signage on both banks.
The span starts behind SUNY Brockport’s Chapman Service Center on Holley Street and lands on the Empire State Trail’s north bank, turning the mid-span into a natural overlook.
That curved alignment plus offset supports, generated the unusual uplift forces RJ Watson bearings now tame.
Community Voices
“This bridge is more than what we imagined,” Mayor Margay Blackman said at the ribbon-cutting. “It’s a work of art, and nothing short of a destination.”
Blackman envisions regattas gliding beneath the span, farm-to-table dinners on the deck, and midnight strolls lit by LEDs that “sparkle up from below the plank decking.”
Building a Canal-Side Gathering Place
Beyond the engineering, the project team leaned into Brockport’s invite-everyone ethos:
- Viewing platform & native plantings turn the mid-span into a pocket park over the water.
- Dark-Sky–compliant LED fixtures illuminate evening strolls without washing out the night sky.
- A kayak dock and boathouse encourage students and residents to trade sneakers for paddles.
All structural steel was fabricated in Western New York, finished with low-VOC coatings, and topped with sustainably sourced slip-resistant wood decking, choices that echo New York’s Reimagine the Canals sustainability goals.
Why Disc Bearings Made the Cut
Disk bearings aren’t new, but their ability to combine high vertical capacity, low-friction sliding, generous rotation, and genuine uplift resistance in one compact package makes them uniquely suited to today’s architecturally driven footbridges. In Brockport they:
- Neutralized uplift without external hold-downs, preserving the bridge’s slim aesthetic.
- Handled rotation from approach ramps meeting the deck at slight skews.
- Simplified installation, each bearing arrived shop-tested and sealed, shaving hours off field alignment time.
That triple-win, performance, appearance, constructability, is precisely why engineers across North America reach for RJ Watson devices on signature crossings.
Bigger Picture: Keeping Brockport Connected
While the pedestrian link is open, Brockport’s vehicular Main Street lift bridge, closed for rehab since May 2023, is still slated to reopen “by the end of June,” making the new footbridge a vital interim conduit for students, residents, and tourists.
A Milestone with Momentum
With the ribbon cut, students can bike from dorms to downtown in minutes, residents gain barrier-free access to campus events, and summer tourists have another Instagram-worthy stop along the Erie Canalway.
