concretemasonry
Structural
- Nov 29, 2006
- 1,781
The replacement bridge will open at 5:00 AM on September 18, 2008 according to a recent announcement. This is just over one year from the date of the collapse.
This is about 100 days ahead of schedule. The construction consortium (design-build concept) stands to gain a $20,000,000(or more) bonus on the $235,000,000 (approx.) project cost to go toward extra labor for overtime construction to take advantage of the weather. The design also made rapid consturction possible. The bonus was calculated as 1/2 of the daily cost to the community on a daily basis without the bridge.
There were concerns whether the DOT and county would be able to complete infrastructure to keep up with the construction progress. Apparently, everything is adequate to open the bridge early and relieve traffic problems elsewhere.
The cause of the failure is still under investigation, apparently with no single factor being identified. With the time used, many different "skeletons" have been revealed. They include the obvious engineering (analyis, details and drawings), original construction, previous alterations/improvements, inspection and the recent contracted repairs (documents, scheduling, practices and movement of equipment and materials).
In the end, it looks to be a combination of many factors, non of which may be the critical "straw that broke the camels back". - I am sure there will be more to follow.
This is about 100 days ahead of schedule. The construction consortium (design-build concept) stands to gain a $20,000,000(or more) bonus on the $235,000,000 (approx.) project cost to go toward extra labor for overtime construction to take advantage of the weather. The design also made rapid consturction possible. The bonus was calculated as 1/2 of the daily cost to the community on a daily basis without the bridge.
There were concerns whether the DOT and county would be able to complete infrastructure to keep up with the construction progress. Apparently, everything is adequate to open the bridge early and relieve traffic problems elsewhere.
The cause of the failure is still under investigation, apparently with no single factor being identified. With the time used, many different "skeletons" have been revealed. They include the obvious engineering (analyis, details and drawings), original construction, previous alterations/improvements, inspection and the recent contracted repairs (documents, scheduling, practices and movement of equipment and materials).
In the end, it looks to be a combination of many factors, non of which may be the critical "straw that broke the camels back". - I am sure there will be more to follow.
