The entire accelerated bridge construction took approximately one year to complete, but the soap-enhanced portion was completed in four hours. (Photo courtesy of Utah Department of Transportation.)

The Utah Department of Transportation recently slid a 1.1-million-lb. bridge into place using dish soap to smooth the slide via a hydraulic system.

The entire accelerated bridge construction took approximately one year to complete, but the soap-enhanced portion was completed in four hours.

Last year, UDOT built a center bridge between the north and southbound freeways. Northbound traffic was diverted to the center bridge as the northbound bridge was demolished and rebuilt, according to the release. After which, southbound traffic was shifted to the center while crews demolished the existing bridge and rebuilt the support structure that would hold the new bridge deck, according to Resident Engineer Tyrell Wood.

"So, that center bridge will no longer exist, so to speak," Wood said in an interview with the St. George News.

By designing the project this way, UDOT was able to reduce traffic interruptions to approximately nine hours, despite construction lasting more than a year, Wood said.

Crews applied dish soap to Teflon pads to keep "everything slippery and moving," Wood said. As part of the hydraulics system, long "screws" rotated, causing the bridge to inch toward its final location. The slab was only allowed to move several inches at a time, which varied as crews worked to ensure that spacing on each side was approximately equal.

"Dawn dish soap is the secret ingredient," he said.

The project lasted 394 workdays and took an estimated 39,176 man-hours to complete, according to a fact sheet sent to Cedar City News by Lisa Hunt Beck, Harmony Public Involvement's president and senior project manager.

However, Wood said that sliding the bridge into place was the "easy part," adding that upon completion, crews had to paint the white and yellow lines, hook up the guardrail and move the concrete barrier.

At the end of the process, there was, at most, a 3/100-in. difference between each corner of the structure, said Beck, adding that a difference of just 3/4 in. would have been considered a failure.

Wood said that not only were backup plans put into place, but the engineers had "contingency plans for contingencies." Additionally, the bridge slid into position quicker than he anticipated.

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