Construction on the $49 million project will begin in November 2011 and take about a year, said Jamal Husani, a transportation engineer with the Cuyahoga County engineer's office.
The lift span will be removed, placed on a barge and moved down the Cuyahoga River. A barge will bring in the new bridge.
The two lift towers will be repaired and new mechanical and electrical equipment will be installed. The road, which carries 4,000 to 6,000 vehicles a day, will be closed for about a year.
Federal, state, county and city money will pay for the project.
When Cleveland was first laid out, just before 1800, the east and west sides of the Cuyahoga River were joined by ferries, which were soon supplanted by the first Center Street Bridge, according to the Encyclopedia of Cleveland History. That bridge was based on a system of chained floating logs. A later version was based on pontoon boats.
What was then called the Columbus Street Bridge was built with a draw section to permit vessels to pass. When it was completed in 1835, Cleveland destroyed its portion of the Center Street Bridge so commerce would have to use Columbus Street and bypass independent Ohio City. Ohio City residents damaged the Columbus Street Bridge in what historians called the Bridge War. Eventually, a truce was reached and both spans remained open.
The Columbus Street Bridge was replaced in 1860, 1918 and 1940, according to the county engineer's office, which is overseeing the project. By 1940, it was known as the Columbus Road Bridge. The 1918 bridge was the first double-swing bridge in the world. The current span was built by the Public Works Administration.
It decided to do a combination of both after considering six alternatives. Several had to do with the degree of renovation, but engineers also looked at building a new bridge upstream from the current one and removing the bridge and eliminating the crossing.
The alternative that was chosen will minimize the impact on traffic and to the surrounding area and maintain the historic character of the bridge.
"The two towers were in good shape," Husani said.