Construction Equipment Guide
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Fort Washington, PA 19034
800-523-2200
Sat August 12, 2000 - West Edition
They were built by men hired by the federal government during the 1930s under the Work Progress Administration, or WPA. Men who lived by the principles of hard work and common sense. Yet even the engineers that designed them couldn’t have possibly envisioned that nearly 70 years later the bridges along Colorado Highway 12 would continue to withstand the stresses of multi-ton trucks, and millions of vehicles each year.
However, even though they may be structurally sound, work has begun on the $1.3-million project to replace the three bridges that lie within one mile of Highway 12 between Stonewall and Weston.
As Gary Vezzani, vice president of contractor Walsenburg Sand and Gravel said, “The bridges are actually in good shape, but they’re too narrow for today’s standards, so we’re basically replacing them to bring them up to code.”
The project was initially delayed because of poor weather conditions earlier this spring, yet Vezzani still anticipates having the project completed well before the November deadline.
“Work came to a complete halt in late-March and early-April when we got hit with over four inches of snow,” explained Vezzani. “So we’re just getting started again with building the detours around the bridges so weather cooperating, we should have the project completed by August.”
In all, Vezzani said the project will require, “a little bit of everything” as far as equipment goes. In addition, crews will pour over 800,000 cu. yds. (6,080,000 cu m) of concrete, 800,000 cu. yds. 6,080,000 cu. m) of flow-fill, and 10,000 cu. yds. (76,000 cu m) of asphalt to re-pave a 1-mi. (1.6 km) stretch of road used for detour purposes.
In all, the project calls for completely replacing one of the bridges, while the main structure of the remaining two bridges will be left intact. For these, crews will replace the decks with concrete slurry and then repave them.
Replacement of the bridge furthest to the west will begin first with crews building a temporary detour to the side of the bridge. The Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) reports that traffic will be shifted onto the temporary lanes so construction will not greatly impact traffic flow.
According to CDOT, replacement of the other two bridges will require traffic to be reduced to one lane. A temporary traffic signal will alternate eastbound and westbound traffic. These two bridges will be built one at a time, minimizing the impact of construction.
In addition, this section of Highway 12 currently ranges in width from 24-ft. (7.27 m) to 30-ft. (9.09 m) wide. When the project is complete, the road will be a uniform 36-ft. (10.9 m) wide with 6-ft. (1.81 m) shoulders, and surfaced with 4 in. (10 cm) of new asphalt. Crews will also replace old fencing and some minor landscaping such as seeding and mulching also will be done.
“The replacement of these bridges is long overdue,” said Ralph Atkins, CDOT project engineer. “We’re pleased to finally be able to move ahead and make the necessary improvements.”
Yet although the work in replacing these bridges is rather routine, this is certainly a unique project. Vezzani said that some of the stones that make up the old bridges are stamped with the WPA-insignia. In fact, because of their historical worth, CDOT has made an agreement with one local land owner that provides that the landowner will be able to keep some of the WPA-stamped stones as part of their right-of-way agreement with CDOT.
Indeed, this was a unique period on our country’s history. The WPA was formed during the 1930s as part of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s National Industrial Recovery Act, a federal program that allocated funds for specific projects with the sole purpose of putting men back to work after the big 1929 stock market crash.
The WPA was one of several Federal agencies established by the President and Congress to bring about financial recovery by giving work to the unemployed. During February 1936 the total number of men and women working under such programs was 3,853,000.