- Italcementi Group

USA: TX Active® shapes the gateway of the reopened Minneapolis’ bridge

At dawn of Thursday, Sept. 18, 2008, the new I-35W Bridge over the Mississippi River in downtown Minneapolis was officially opened.
Italcementi Group, through its North American subsidiary Essroc, made its contribution to the project for the construction of two white concrete gateway elements, made with TX Active®, standing on both ends of the bridge.
The two 30-foot tall gleaming white concrete sculptures, that comprise three wavy columns representing a vertical interpretation of the universal symbol for water, stand on both sides as a ‘gateway’ to greet travelers on the new Interstate 35 west bridge. These symbols serve as a reminder of the previous bridge which tragically collapsed in August 2007.
The design of the bridge had to be aesthetically pleasing and fit in with its environment. According to that idea, the two most striking features perhaps are the extensive LED lighting system, which dramatically illuminates the structure at night, and the pioneering use of self-cleaning, pollution-reducing photocatalytic cement in its white water symbol monuments, produced by Essroc Italcementi Group, headquartered in Nazareth, Pennsylvania.

“Architectural surfaces formulated with TX Active® cement are efficient in destroying atmospheric pollutants,” explains Essroc’s TX Active® Product Manager, Dan Schaffer. “The results are cleaner concrete surfaces and cleaner air. In the case of the I-35W Bridge in Minneapolis, the results will be cleaner monuments with reduced costs for maintenance.” The sculptures are the highest-profile North American application of the self-cleaning cement to date on this side of the Atlantic, according to Schaffer. “It’s an inspired choice for monuments built to express the human values of renewal and rebirth, as symbolized by the international water symbol.”