Sverdrup & Parcel

Sverdrup & Parcel was an American civil engineering company formed in 1928 by Leif J. Sverdrup and his college engineering professor John I. Parcel. The company worked primarily in a specialty field of bridges. Many of the company's projects were located in the St. Louis, Missouri area near the company's headquarters.

The firm was the designer of the ill-fated I-35W Mississippi River bridge, Minneapolis, Minnesota, 1964 (Collapsed on August 1, 2007). [cite web |url = http://www.nydailynews.com/news/wn_report/2007/08/04/2007-08-04_hey_dont_blame_me_for_collapse.html |title = Hey, don't blame me for collapse |accessdate = 2007-08-04 |publisher= Daily News] Preliminary findngs of the National Transportation Safety Board blame the firm's gusset plate design for the bridge collapse. [cite web |url = http://www.ntsb.gov/Recs/letters/2008/H08_1_Design_Adequacy_Report.pdf |title = Adequacy of the U10 & L11 Gusset Plate Designs for the Minnesota Bridge No. 9340 |accessdate = 2008-01-15 |publisher= Federal Highway Administration] , [cite web |url = http://www.ntsb.gov/Recs/letters/2008/H08_1.pdf |title = Safety Recommendation H-08-1- January 15, 2008 |accessdate = 2008-01-15 |publisher= National Transportation Safety Board]

Some other well-known projects of Sverdrup & Parcel include:
* Amelia Earhart Bridge 1939, Atchison, Kansas
* Sidney Lanier Bridge 1956, Brunswick, Georgia
* Bridge of the Americas 1962 (also known as Puente de las Américas, Thatcher Ferry Bridge), Panama, crosses the Panama Canal
* Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel, (also known as Lucius J. Kellam, Jr. Bridge-Tunnel) completed in 1964, and named one of the "Seven Engineering Wonders of the Modern World" shortly thereafter.
* Busch Memorial Stadium 1966, St. Louis, Missouri
* Puente de Angostura Bolivar, Venezuela, crosses the Orinoco River
* Louisiana Superdome, New Orleans, Louisiana, 1975

Sverdup & Parcel was succeeded by Sverdrup Civil, which in 1999 was part of the merger between Sverdrup and Jacobs Engineering.

References

* http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/16/washington/16bridge.html

External links

* [http://www.jacobs.com/ Jacobs Engineering website]