Baker Engineering

Baker Engineering Old bridge segments (above) rolled out and new span (below) rolled in.

The accelerated bridge construction  method has been used extensively in Europe and recently in some states such as Florida. Utah Dept. of Transportation now plans to use it on 14 other bridges, says Adan E. Carrillo, UDOT spokesman. Officials representing 10 state DOTs viewed the event.

A $1-million grant from the Federal Highway Administration’s Highway for Life program helped fund the Oct. 27-29 replacement, which contractor Ralph L. Wadsworth Construction Co. Inc., Draper, Utah, performed under a $7.5-million contract. The concrete-girder bridge, about 30 years old, quickly deteriorated due to freeze-thaw cycles and salting, says Jim McMinimee, UDOT project development director.

Michael Baker Corp., Moon Township, Pa., designed the 172-ft-long, five-lane steel-girder span with a cast-in-place concrete deck. It was built on temporary abutments nearby. Crews used Self-Propelled Modular Transporters (SPMTs), equipped with joystick-controlled hydraulic lifts and operated by the Dutch firm Mammoet, to lift and roll out the old bridge, remove the old abutments and roll in the new one. The 12% slope of the site made the job all the trickier. Shipping containers bridged the gap between the 4-ft-tall trailers and the bridge’s clearance, which is as high as 30 ft.

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Crews built the new abutments in advance, excavating 40 ft beneath the old abutments, says Kip Wadsworth, the contractor’s president. Baker designed the new abutments with 3-ft-wide bearing seats and elastomeric pads to allow 1-in. tolerances for the superstructure, says Michael Arens, Baker project engineer. Temporary ramps and cable tie-offs helped crews safely transport the bridge over the sloping road. The job finished well in time for Monday I-215 traffic.