New bridge changes a set of 50-year-old structures in North Carolina.
Image thanks to Balfour Beatty
In spite of six-month fish moratoriums, building of a 3,200-ft-long bridge linking Carteret County in North Carolina straight to Harkers Island has actually been finished a year ahead of its initial schedule.
Demolition of the initial Earl C. Memorial Bridge, a steel drawbridge, is slated to finish up this month while Bridge No. 96, which continued the connection past a fishing pier causeway, is being repurposed as a pedestrian bridge to offer access to the center island and a refurbished Straits Fishing Pier.
The brand-new fixed-span bridge, built over the straits to the east of the 2 50-year-old structures, offers a direct course for chauffeurs taking a trip to and from the mainland. With a 45-foot navigational clearance, it enables boats to pass unobstructed and securely enables drivers to take a trip without awaiting bridge openings that might take as long as 15 minutes.
The structure sports carbon fiber-reinforced polymer (CFRP) hairs and glass fiber-reinforced polymer (GFRP) bars to much better hold up against the seaside environment. “Some years back we needed to change all the core pieces since of the seawater and deterioration” on the drawbridge, states Brad McMannen, North Carolina Dept. of Transportation task supervisor. “Concrete was falling off and the [swing span] was getting secured. From an upkeep perspective, it was time for something brand-new and various.”
Balfour Beatty won the $68-million task in fall of 2021. “Once we got on website, we spoke about the [possibility] to complete ahead of schedule by a year,” states Mark Johnnie, Balfour Beatty U.S. Civil CEO.
The specialist value-engineered the pre-drilling procedure to accelerate the schedule, states Peter Distefano, Balfour Beatty senior job supervisor. To get rid of the requirement to carry out a complete excavation prior to stack positioning, the group leveraged a probe through roughly 5 feet of a difficult layer. “The borings revealed a relatively soft layer underneath that,” he states. “Essentially the stack excavation required a 42-in. casing to be set up to drill. We had that casing and customized it into a probe. We utilized that to vibrate through the layer.”
Delivering the 28 concrete girders by barge rather of by truck likewise conserved time, as did including additional shifts. “The letting was in late July, and we were granted the task in early August,” remembers Distefano. “The moratorium began Oct. 1. We needed to launch quickly and be driving production stacking and trestle stacking in the 2 months in between,” he states.
He includes: “We had a quite strong labor force in the location. We had actually simply completed the Surf City Bridge simply south of this task so we had a great deal of excellent teams all set to go.”
Due to the bridge being developed with CFRP and GFRP products,
