04/28/2023
Long post of our most Epic build! Now open to the public!
Over 18 months of planning and development in collaboration with the City of Grand Prairie, 900lbs of Creative, Studio Outside, Hill & Wilkinson General Contractors, Merriman Anderson Architects, and York Bridge - for the newly expanded Epic Central in Grand Prarie.
Beginning with raw design concepts and material inspirations our teams worked tirelessly together to brainstorm ideas, define the aesthetics, coordinate scheduling, plan the site integration, and refine and refine and refine the details, until we had fully fleshed out these 2 stunning interactive public pedestrian bridges. The 2 timber bridges were built by York Bridge, with the large bridge measuring 170 ft, and the small bridge at just over 100ft across.
End Design led much of the development process for the arches, the lighting, and the entire radial handrail system with- initial feasibility proofing, materials research, 3D modeling, high detail structural designing and CAD drawing, rapid prototyping and intensive engineering reviews. As we gained full confidence in the overall feasibility, End Design simultaneously aligned a multidisciplinary range of high quality vendors ready to supply materials and help bring each unique custom part to life. From roll forming over 800ft of 6”x3”x3/8” steel rectangle tube for the arches, to extruding and stretch forming 1,500ft of custom aluminum channels to house the LEDs, to heat forming tempered safety laminated dichroic glass, to water jet and laser cutting structural steel plate (all to the same exact matching radius), We designed each tiny part, coordinated it’s specialty fabrication and gathered all of the raw components together for intensive in shop fitting, assembly and forging. Through a combination of exhaustive planning, sheer physical force, and high consequence ex*****on, we diligently brought each arch to life from our minds, to our computers, to our welding table to a 10 ton crane flying each arch across a ravine to it’s final resting positions on the bridge.
Other fun facts about this ‘lighted structural arch and radial handrail system’-
-Each arch consists of over 20 custom designed and custom built parts
-There’s is an average of 16 linear ft of full pe*******on structural welding on each arch! With a grand total of 800 linear ft of welding or 9,600 linear inches.
-The largest arches weigh over 900lbs fully loaded, and the smallest around 350lbs, with a grand total of around 25,000lbs for all arch systems installed on both bridges.
-Rough Hardware Count - Over 1,000 bolts, 1,000 nuts, 3,000 washers, 3,000 rivets, 800 lag screws, 2,000 wood screws, 416 rubber washers, and more.
-Engineering designed to withstand a 120mph sustained wind for 60 seconds.
-over 6,000 ft of 1/4” stainless steel cable was cut, crimped and stretched across average 40ft cable spans. Each of the 17 cables start and end at “designated termination arches” and pass through 3 arches in between. Each termination arch takes on over 2,800 lbs of applied tension from the cable alone. Not to mention other radial axis forces at work.
-50 arches, 540 ft of handrail, and 540 ft of foot rail (over 25,000 lbs) were transported across town to our powder coating vendor, coated in architectural grade satin black powder coat and then transported back to our shop again for final assembly. (And then transported a 3rd time to onsite installation)
-208 individually threaded glass standoff mounts were drilled, tapped and attached with critical alignment to corresponding glass hole patterns.
-thousands of stainless steel rivets were match drilled, attaching the curved aluminum LED channel to the top and bottom of each steel arch
-a 10 ton crane with a 110ft reach was positioned on site for 2 days to fly each arch into position
-each arch has 2 fan cooled fully enclosed electrical boxes installed below the bridge, 1 for power, 1 for LED control.
-The dichroic glass shifts color spectrums from orange to purple during the day with the changing position of the sun.
-The RGBW LED neon is fully programmable, integrated with the overall site lighting, synced to nightly light shows with the properties new “Bellagio style” water fountain attraction and even synced to music!!
We could literally break down details for several more pages here…. Check out (1 of 50) of our working shop drawings to get a further feel of the complexities… or feel free to ask a question about the build!
This project was a monumental achievement for our small team, which we are so proud to have expertly delivered on. We couldn’t have done it without the amazing support of our fore-mentioned project partners and our stellar industry suppliers. A truly Epic experience we can only strive to achieve again and again!
Epic Central has become a genuine entertainment district well worth some attention. From Loop9 BBQ, to the outdoor concert stage/event lawn, across THE BRIDGE to Chicken and Pickle, there is SO much to experience, take in, and enjoy! Not to mention, Epic Water Park, Boulder Adventure Park, the kids parks, the water features, the landscaping…..on and on.
The bridges look awesome during the day and really begin to WOW after sunset. We hope you can make a trip to see it all in person soon!
