Prefabricated Bridge Elements and Systems
Troy-Menands Bridge | |
|---|---|
| Location | Between the City of Troy and the Village of Menands in Rensselaer and Albany Counties |
| State | NY |
| Completion Date | 1995 |
| Contact Person | Timothy Conway P.E. Regional Structures Engineer Region One New York State Department of Transportation Phone: (518) 473-0497 Email: TConway@gw.dot.state.ny.us |
| Description | The Troy-Menands Bridge carries Route 378 over the Hudson river in Rensselaer and Albany Counties. The structure supplies access to local businesses in both counties as well as area colleges, and more than 36,000 vehicles cross it daily. Work of any kind on this structure is usually confined to off-peak hours for one-lane closures night-only hours for multiple-lane or total closures. When the badly deteriorating bridge deck needed to be replaced, the project was challenged to avoid impacting the travelling public to a significant degree. An around-the-clock detour was not feasible because of potential congestion for alternate crossings, especially during peak hour flows. New York State Department of Transportation's Region One Office opted to use precast deck panels, offering two precast options, and to require the contractor to complete the work during the hours of 10 pm to 6 am, closing only three of the four lanes. The contractor chose exodermic precast concrete deck panels using lightweight concrete, which increased the load-carrying capacity of the floor beams of the structure and made the panels more manageable and maneuverable during construction. The contractor was required to remove a portion of the deck, prepare it for the precast panel, install the new panel, and fill the joints with joint material. After a short learning period, the contractor was able to install six panels--just over 900 square feet of deck area--per night. Traffic was never delayed during the morning rush hour, and the contractor was never fined for late openings. Today the deck is still in very good shape some seven years after completion. |
| Prefabricated Elements | full |
| Other Keywords | Exodermic deck panels,full-depth deck panels |
| Advantages | Minimized traffic disruption: Work occurred at night when traffic volume was low, with lanes open to full traffic by morning commuting hours. |
| Contract Elements | The contract assessed penalties for failing to open the bridge to traffic by 6 am of $10,000 per hour. |
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