When galleries streamed across the Allegheny River to Oakmont Country Club for the 125th U.S. Open, the modern four-lane Hulton Bridge—opened back in October 2015—effortlessly moved tens of thousands of spectators just hours before California’s J.J. Spaun curled in a 64-foot birdie on the 18th green to capture his first major on Sunday, June 15, 2025.
From creaking truss to capacity-builder
The original Hulton Bridge—a two-lane Parker-Pratt through-truss that debuted in 1910—was perfect for Model T traffic but ill-suited to 21st-century demands. By the early 2000s it carried more than 22,000 vehicles a day and wore PennDOT’s “structurally deficient” label.
A 1,633-ft answer to a regional chokepoint
PennDOT’s remedy rose just upstream: a $65 million, 1,633-ft haunched-girder structure with a 500-ft river span—still one of Pennsylvania’s longest plate-girder crossings. Designed by Gannett Fleming with McCormick Taylor and built by Brayman Construction, the bridge doubles capacity to four lanes, adds shoulders, an ADA-compliant sidewalk, and under-deck inspection walkways, while tying directly into SR-28 and the Pennsylvania Turnpike.
Erected in 48 hours—courtesy of strand jacks
To satisfy Coast Guard limits on channel closures, engineers pre-assembled the 1,200-ton river span on barges and hoisted it into place with four 600-ton strand jacks—re-opening navigation in just two days, a feat that later earned a National Steel Bridge Alliance Merit Award.
Clearing the way
Once traffic shifted, 500 shaped charges felled the 105-year-old truss at 9:50 a.m. on January 26, 2016, clearing debris in time for Oakmont’s 2016 U.S. Open and proving the project team could meet championship-level deadlines.
Bearing the load—literally
At every pier and abutment, 25 R.J. Watson high-load, multi-rotational Disktron bearings let the steel superstructure breathe under temperature swings, truck traffic, and barge-induced vibration. Each maintenance-free unit handles up to 15,000 kips while accommodating rotations beyond 0.08 radians—critical for a skewed, haunched-girder layout of this length.
“A bearing is the quiet hinge between 40,000 cars a day and the river fifty feet below,” notes Zack Watson, echoing the firm’s “Trusted Field Engineer” ethos.
Built for moments like this
Whether it’s everyday commuters or a once-a-decade major championship, the Hulton Bridge continues to deliver the unglamorous but vital work of keeping people moving—so the drama can unfold where it belongs: on Oakmont’s lightning-fast greens.
