Replacement of the East River Bridge

摘要

There are few industries that can boast having infrastructure with the same longevity as the North American Railroads. Maintaining bridge infrastructure poses its own set of unique challenges that can be attributed to many factors including age, designed carrying capacity, and the geometry of the structure itself. In order to keep trains running at the optimal track speed and protect operations, it is necessary to identify structures for rehabilitation or replacement. Bridge structures that exhibit a history of geometry defects requiring slow orders and ongoing structural concerns are ideal candidates for replacement. The following project description will discuss the overall scope of work, challenges, and construction techniques utilized while replacing the bridge located at N-340.68. This bridge is located just west of the Virginia/West Virginia state line and is a double main two span open deck structure comprised of two 62-foot-long riveted steel plate girder spans with skewed back walls in a 7-1/2 degree curve carrying 3 inches of super elevation originally erected in 1899. The replacement bridge was a double main three span ballast deck structure measuring 221 feet long built along the same alignment supported by two new intermediate piers and two precast abutments that were all supported by 42 inch diameter drilled shafts. Both of the existing bridges remained in service until two separate 80 hour outages removed the existing superstructure and replaced it with the new bridge. At the end 1.4 million pounds of steel had been erected, 735 cubic yards of concrete poured, 514 cubic yards of precast concrete set, 271,000 pounds of rebar tied together, and the total duration was 1 year and 9 months.