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The Bridge Component Rehabilitation/Replacement Program (BCRRP) has been instrumental in maintaining the stability and working condition of some 852 bridges within the New York area. Founded in 1991 by the New York Dept of Transportation, the BCRRP has been a successful attempt to preserve and protect the state's oldest transportation infrastructures. The program employs a fast-track approach in replacing worn-out parts, in order to ensure that repair works do not contribute to massive transport delays. The program further adopts innovative contracting and project management strategies, which are key to reducing infrastructure costs., New York City is an archipelago. Thanks to this geological quirk and a correspondingly varied terrain, the city's Bureau of Bridges, a division within the New York City Department of [...]

Exodermic bridge deck design provides a rapid way of redecking bridges while providing the advantages of reinforced concrete decks such as good ride quality, easy maintenance and contractor familiarity. Exodermic decks also increase the liveload rating of bridges undergoing rehabilitation by reducing deadload. Exodermic bridge deck design has been successfully employed at the Milton Madison Bridge over the Ohio River, the Troy-Menands Bridge over the Hudson River and the Route 27 bridge in Pulaski County, KY., When many of our bridges were built, life reflected the then existing alternatives for noise, smoke, and dust of construction, the impact of bridge work on a community was small. [...]

The Federal Highway Administration reported that almost 40% of US bridges are deficient and require either rehabilitation or replacement. The alarming figure has resulted in the development of new rehabilitative processes and techniques such as joint sealing, deck repair and crack injection. Among the factors to be considered in designing and maintaining bridges are climate, environment, roadway drainage and painting materials., The Federal Highway Administration's Transportation Research Board reports that about one-half of the approximately 600,000 highway bridges in the United States were built before 1940. Most were designed for less [...]

Greenman-Pedersen Inc. developed a novel computer-based system for inspecting bridge foundations after the New York City Dept. of Transportation awarded the company a contract to oversee work on the south roadways reconstruction project. A brief overview of the development of this system and how it was used in the reconstruction of the Williamsburg Bridge in New York, NY, is presented., By the late 1980s, the Williamsburg Bridge in New York City was in a serious state of decay. Following an intense debate among city officials and engineering consultants, a decision [...]

The Virginia Dept. of Transportation maintains the Varina-Enon Bridge which spans marshy sections of the James River from being blocked up during the winter season. A bridge deck monitoring system is connected to sensors embedded in the deck that provide information on surface conditions. The deicing chemical CG-90 Surface Saver is being used to keep the surface free from ice and to prevent the corrosion of the cable networks, guard rails and other parts., SKIRTING the eastern edge of metropolitan Richmond, Virginia is Interstate 295, a beltway designed to relieve some of the pressure on Interstate 95 through the heart of the city. An [...]

Mr. Stark is Program Administrator, Bridge Rehabilitation Unit, Connecticut Department of Transportation, Wethersfield, Connecticut. Mr. Daily is Regional Sales Manager, ELGARD Corporation, Chardon, Ohio. THE nation's deteriorating infrastructure, including bridges, [...]

THE deterioration of bridges in the United States and the monumental cost of their replacement has been well publicized in the past decade. Although there are many causes for the [...]

The American Society of Civil Engineers in its 1998 Report Card for America's Infrastructure gives the nation's bridges a C- grade. A total of 182,726 of the nation's 581,862 bridges [...]

It is estimated that highways are deteriorating 50% faster than repair is occurring. States cannot afford the needed repairs, even with partial federal assistance. In addition, vehicle size, weight, and miles traveled are increasing. State maintenance management needs improvement in equipment, materials, snow and ice control, equipment energy conservation, coating materials, and monitoring systems.

A seismic retrofit plan for California involves strengthening bridges constructed before 1980 to better withstand earthquakes of 7.2 magnitude. Part of the multi-billion-dollar program is a $3-million-a-year coatings initiative, wherein a special coating is applied to added welded steel cladding on concrete bridge piers for protection. The contract was awarded to Murphy Industrial Coatings of Signal Hill, CA, which used only two specially formulated Sherwin-Williams coatings, namely, the primer Zinc-Clad XI and B66 acrylic latex in different colors for topcoating., It had been more than six decades since an earthquake rumbled directly beneath a heavily populated urban area in the United States. But that long stretch of relative calm abruptly [...]

The repair of the 80-year-old bridge in Groton, CT, introduced major changes to the town's infrastructure and utilities. Officials started developing plans to repair the bridge after noticing that the bridge's substandard condition made it unsafe. Connecticut's public works department immediately approved the $6.5-million package requested by the community to cover the reconstruction project. The contract was awarded to Greiner Inc., which presented a single, simple span structure designed to AASHTO HS-20 loading., Replacing an old - but essential - bridge in Groton, Connecticut presented a number of challenges, ranging from kinks in the road that blocked one source of state funds, to [...]

The Minnesota Dept. of Transportation used hydraulics to lift the 45-ft.-high three-column pier that supports the 1473 ft.-long bridge in Interstate 94. Engineers and bridge designers opted to use hydraulics to avoid disrupting traffic. Iron cribbings were designed to support the vertical lift and the horizontal shift that attached to the steel beams. The vertical cribbing used W27 by 94 beams, while the horizontal shift used L-shaped brackets made from HP12 by 53 pile cut-offs., Minnesota's Department of Transportation (MN-DOT) recently solved a bridge substructure problem in Minneapolis by creatively combining vertical and horizontal hydraulic forces. The problem was a 45-ft high, three-column pier supporting [...]

Computer applications are being developed for bridge maintenance and rehabilitation to effectively comply with new federal and local bridge inspection schedules and requirements. Systems are available that can provide customized field inspection forms for transit and railroad bridges. Databases are being designed which can help develop a regular maintenance and rehabilitation regime incorporating cost analysis and monitor structures during interim periods., COMPUTERS have long played a role in bridge engineering, but their inspection, maintenance, and rehabilitation applications have only recently begun to be fully explored. It is perhaps only within the [...]

The Wyoming Dept. of Transportation hired TSP Two Inc. to conduct a feasibility study on the rehabilitation of two low-volume bridges in Sheridan County. The results of the study were applied to the rehabilitation of the Lower Piney Bridge, which involved the replacement of its lower chord parts, timber griders and decking with prefabricated steel deck modules. The bridge was also painted and the approaches were widened., LIKE most county governments throughout the United States, Sheridan County, Wyoming is continually faced with the need to balance road and bridge services with limited funding. The operation and maintenance [...]

ANNE ARUNDEL County Public Works in Maryland was able to upgrade its Riva Road Bridge faster, at less cost, and with reduced traffic disruption because of an incentive-based contract that [...]