The $40.8 million McKees Rocks Bridge Preservation project in Pittsburgh, Pa., funded by PennDOT, is on schedule for completion next summer. Extended due to unexpected deterioration, it includes sidewalk repairs, road reconstruction, barrier replacements, and lane restrictions causing traffic challenges. Subcontractors and specialty equipment are used to navigate unique aspects of the 1930 bridge, including spans over ALCOSAN wastewater treatment plant. Work involves 45-60 workers daily, structural repairs, and concrete pouring.
Photo courtesy of Stephanie Smilak of PennDOT
A project to preserve a Pittsburgh, Pa., bridge will be complete by next summer, according to the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT).
The $40.8 million McKees Rocks Bridge Preservation project is fully funded by the state. The contract was awarded to Brayman Construction and Advantage Steel.
"It's running longer than the original schedule because we added a lot of work, but we are on schedule with the work that we have," said Jason Zang, district executive.
Photo courtesy of Stephanie Smilak of PennDOT
He noted that work was added because of advanced deterioration that was not anticipated and unforeseen field conditions.
The location extends between Route 51 (Island Ave.) and Route 65 (Ohio River Blvd.) and includes sidewalk replacement, sidewalk support steel repairs, sidewalk railing painting, full-depth concrete pavement reconstruction of the road and two ramps at Helen Street, ADA curb ramp installation, approach pavement work at intersections of Routes 65 and 51, barrier replacement and upgrade, deck overhang and spall repair, railroad fencing installation and other miscellaneous construction. As work occurs, traffic will be reduced to a single lane in each direction.
"This is the McKees Rocks Bridge, so if you're familiar with the area, it's a very heavily used bridge," Zang said. "We have it restricted down to one lane in each direction, which has caused a lot of challenges at each end of the bridge, especially the northern side of the bridge with Route 65."
He added that in this heavily-used intersection, one of the turning lanes had to be eliminated, so this created some issues.
"There's also an emergency services company that basically is headquartered right beside of the bridge and uses the bridge very heavily," Zang said. "So, when we first went into construction, they were highly concerned with the traffic cues and backups, and what we ended up doing was using a pre-emptive traffic signal technology out on the project that senses sirens and gives them a green light to allow them to clear the bridge. It's worked out really, really well. It's also a high crash area. It's a long bridge, it's narrow with the two lanes, people speed and initially we had a lot of accidents on the bridge. It seems to have calmed down."
He reported that another challenge involves winter services.
"Our plow trucks have 12-foot-wide plows on them; the lanes are 11-foot-wide, so that's problematic," Zang said. "So, we had to work around that and use specialty equipment in the winter to clear the bridge of snow."
He also noted the unique aspects of the structure, which extends for 1.1 mi.
"It's one of kind," he said. "There's no other bridge like the McKees Rocks Bridge. It was built in 1930. There are unique details of how things are put together and how things are supported, which kind of led us to add the work. We ended up deciding to replace all the barrier in the bridge, which was not in the original design, because the sidewalk is what we were replacing. The sidewalk is supported by the barrier, so we wanted to make sure we had solid foundation for the sidewalk support, so we ended up deciding to replace the barrier."
He explained that another phase of the project when funding becomes available will involve painting the bridge deck.
Zang said that some of the spans on the bridge are what is called a through truss. There are some suspended spans, deck arches and open spans.
Photo courtesy of Stephanie Smilak of PennDOT
"Another challenge is that it goes over ALCOSAN," he said. "It's the biggest wastewater treatment plant in Allegheny County. It treats Allegheny County, city of Pittsburgh and several of the spans of the bridge actually go over that plant, which is a very active plant. They're also going through major projects to expand their service, so it's a very congested, heavily used area."
Subcontractors include Amari Painting for painting of the sidewalk support steel and pedestrian railings along the sidewalks; Rae-Lyn for all temporary signs along the project; Bronder Technical Services for electrical/signals; Strongstown's B&K for temp concrete barrier; Williams & Willman for line painting/pavement markings; and Eurovia (Northeast Paving) for the paving tie-ins on each end of the project (at the SR 65 and SR 51 intersections).
There are approximately 45-60 workers in total from the prime contractor and its subcontractors daily.
The project involves more than 220,000 lbs. of structural steel repairs and approximately 5,000 cu. yds. of concrete poured with approximately 7,000 cu. yds. demoed. CEG
Brenda Ruggiero
Brenda Ruggiero has written for CEG for over 20 years. She lives near the town of Accident in far western Maryland. Her favorite assignments so far involved interviews with Survivor’s Boston Rob and hot dog eating champion Joey Chestnut. Both were involved in construction at one time.
Brenda holds a BA in Mass Communication with a writing focus from Frostburg State University and minors in Public Relations and Political Science. She works full time as a staff writer for a weekly newspaper, the Garrett County Republican. She enjoys feature writing the most, which gives her the opportunity to talk to people and share their stories.
Brenda and her middle school sweetheart, Reuben, have been married for over 34 years and have three grown children and four cats.
Read more from Brenda Ruggiero here.
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