Sverdrup & Parcel
Encyclopedia
Sverdrup & Parcel was an American civil engineering
Civil engineering
Civil engineering is a professional engineering discipline that deals with the design, construction, and maintenance of the physical and naturally built environment, including works like roads, bridges, canals, dams, and buildings...

 company formed in 1928 by Leif J. Sverdrup
Leif J. Sverdrup
Leif Johan Sverdrup was a Norwegian born, American civil engineer and general with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in the first half of the 20th century...

 and his college engineering professor John I. Parcel. The company worked primarily in a specialty field of bridge
Bridge
A bridge is a structure built to span physical obstacles such as a body of water, valley, or road, for the purpose of providing passage over the obstacle...

s. Many of the company's projects were located in the St. Louis, Missouri
St. Louis, Missouri
St. Louis is an independent city on the eastern border of Missouri, United States. With a population of 319,294, it was the 58th-largest U.S. city at the 2010 U.S. Census. The Greater St...

 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). The official report by the National Transportation Safety Board blamed the bridge collapse on a design error by the firm, resulting in the gusset plates having inadequate load capacity.

Some other well-known projects of Sverdrup & Parcel include:
  • Amelia Earhart Bridge
    Amelia Earhart Bridge
    The Amelia Earhart Memorial Bridge is a truss bridge over the Missouri River on U.S. Route 59 between Atchison, Kansas and Buchanan County, Missouri.It was built in 1937–1938 by the Works Progress Administration. It was designed by Sverdrup & Parcel...

     1939, Atchison, Kansas
  • Sidney Lanier Bridge
    Sidney Lanier Bridge
    The Sidney Lanier Bridge is a cable-stayed bridge that spans the Brunswick River in Brunswick, Georgia, carrying four lanes of U.S. Route 17. The current bridge was built as a replacement to the original lift bridge which was twice struck by ships. It is currently the longest spanning bridge in...

     1956, Brunswick, Georgia
  • Bridge of the Americas
    Bridge of the Americas
    The Bridge of the Americas is a road bridge in Panama, which spans the Pacific entrance to the Panama Canal. Completed in 1962, at a cost of US$20 million, it was the only non-swinging bridge connecting the north and south American land masses until the opening of the Centennial Bridge in 2004...

     1962 (also known as Puente de las Américas, Thatcher Ferry Bridge), Panama, crosses the Panama Canal
    Panama Canal
    The Panama Canal is a ship canal in Panama that joins the Atlantic Ocean and the Pacific Ocean and is a key conduit for international maritime trade. Built from 1904 to 1914, the canal has seen annual traffic rise from about 1,000 ships early on to 14,702 vessels measuring a total of 309.6...

  • Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel
    Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel
    The Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel is a long fixed link crossing the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay and connecting the Delmarva Peninsula's Eastern Shore of Virginia with Virginia Beach and the metropolitan area of Hampton Roads, Virginia...

    , (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
    Busch Memorial Stadium
    Busch Memorial Stadium, also known as Busch Stadium, was a multi-purpose sports facility in St. Louis, Missouri that operated from 1966 to 2005....

     1966, St. Louis, Missouri
  • Hearnes Center
    Hearnes Center
    Hearnes Center is a 13,611-seat multi-purpose arena in Columbia, Missouri. The arena opened in 1972. It is currently home to the Tigers' nationally ranked wrestling and volleyball teams as well as the school's gymnastics and indoor track & field teams...

    , 1972, Columbia, Missouri
  • Puente de Angostura Bolivar, Venezuela, crosses the Orinoco River
  • Louisiana Superdome
    Louisiana Superdome
    The Mercedes-Benz Superdome, previously known as the Louisiana Superdome and colloquially known as the Superdome, is a sports and exhibition arena located in the Central Business District of New Orleans, Louisiana, USA...

    , New Orleans, Louisiana, 1975


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