Posted on 04/01/2017 10:54:01 AM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
Delaware River Turnpike Bridge to Reopen Late Tonight
Crossing was closed for seven weeks as fractured truss member was repaired.
Officials from the PA Turnpike Commission (PTC) and the New Jersey Turnpike Authority (NJTA) today announced that they expect to reopen the jointly owned Delaware River Bridge sometime late tonight. The 1.25-mile-long bridge, which carries traffic between the two states, first closed Jan. 20 when a complete fracture was discovered in the superstructure beneath the westbound lanes on the Pennsylvania side in Bristol Township, Bucks County.
“Many people were greatly inconvenienced by this closure over the last seven weeks, and I know that everyone is excited to get this bridge reopened and to see their lives return to normal,” said PA Turnpike CEO Mark Compton. “Without a doubt, this incident was a bad dream for the two turnpike agencies and the contractors and consultants on our team, but a nightmare for customers and neighbors.”
“We pledged to reopen the bridge as soon as we could do so safely,” said New Jersey Transportation Commissioner Richard T. Hammer, who serves as chairman of the New Jersey Turnpike Authority board. “Thanks to a round-the-clock effort involving dozens of engineers, contractors, scientists, and other workers, we are able to get that done much sooner than we expected with every confidence that it will be safe for the motorists who depend on it.”
The PTC, NJTA and at least two dozen contractors, consultants and other entities that make up the joint repair team have been working to fix the fractured truss member, or girder.
“We were able to bring in some of the very best minds in the field to work with the staffs of our agencies to evaluate the fracture and then design and execute the repair,” said New Jersey Turnpike Authority Executive Director Joseph W. Mrozek. “Because of hard work by a lot of talented people, we’ll be reopening the bridge weeks ahead of the date we projected when it was first shut down.”
The bridge, which carries about 42,000 vehicles per day, first opened to traffic in 1956.
“Given the number of experts who have inspected, tested and studied it over the last 49 days, it’s safe to say this bridge is perhaps the most scrutinized structure in the nation and maybe the world,” said PA Turnpike Chief Engineer Brad Heigel. “We have a high level of confidence on both shores of the river regarding the reliability of our repair and the safety of the bridge for travelers and for nearby residents.”
The repair team began the effort by immediately bolstering the truss with a temporary splice. Then, they deployed hydraulic jacks — each capable of lifting 600 tons — held by eight, 80-foot-high towers, to realign the truss, which was displaced by approximately 2 inches when the fracture occurred.
Once the bridge was realigned, the repair team initiated a post-tensioning technique to bring the damaged truss back into alignment and to reintroduce loads into the fractured truss member. Then, the team built a permanent splice to rejoin and repair the fractured truss member.
“The repaired truss member is now much sturdier than the original because of the splice,” Heigel explained.
Earlier this week, the team ran a series of load tests to study the effectiveness of the permanent splice. Eight, tri-axle dump trucks carrying 40 tons of aggregate were driven across the bridge while sensors installed on the truss and splice detected the structure’s reaction. Load testing results showed that the bridge can support the weight of live traffic.
“We will continue to monitor loads and stresses on the bridge,” said NJTA Chief Engineer Robert Fischer. “The temporary sensors will remain for now. In the coming months, we expect to install a system for monitoring the health of the bridge over the long term.”
Heigel confirmed that two mis-drilled holes — each approximately one inch in diameter and filled with weld material — were identified as the primary factors that contributed to the fracture. But bridge experts agree it was certainly not the only trigger.
After an exhaustive study of the entire bridge — which included weeks of hands-on inspections, ultrasonic testing and metallurgical analysis from three different, independent laboratories — no other such weld-filled holes were found to be present.
“We continue to look at other factors such as air temperature and loads like heavy trucks or high winds that may have had an impact when the fracture occurred,” Heigel said. “But getting a definitive answer as to why it happened is akin to solving a 60-year-old mystery perpetuated by unseen offenders. We may never know for sure what all the factors were that caused the fracture,” Heigel said.
Seven weeks for a fractured truss.
I wonder how long it will take to patch or replace the melted bridge on Atlanta’s I-85?
It is estimated that the I-85 bridge replacement will take several months. No telling when they will open that parallel freeway, which sits right next to the I-85 fire spot.
The first stretch of the PA Turnpike, some 160 miles, was built in the span of about a year or so. But that was when you didn’t have environ-MENTAL regulations, NEPA, ESA, carbon restrictions, etc.
One of my boys lives in midtown Atlanta. I asked him how bad it would screw up traffic. He said “who cares, I walk to work” and “the traffic is always bad.”
Saw a guy on the ground looking at it thru what seemed to be a mini telescope yesterday in the rain. I wonder what caused the crack? The earthquake that damaged the Washington monument decades ago? :)
What? Are they having a ribbon-cutting ceremony at midnight, or something?
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