Photo courtesy of PennDOT
In the past couple of months, the Buckley team has been working on bridge decks and ramp repairs so that traffic can be shifted into its final position.
When disaster strikes, some walk away. Others step forward. The Pennsylvania construction industry stepped forward when disaster struck on June 11 last year. A tanker truck overturned on I-95 just north of downtown Philadelphia. The explosion was so intense that steel, including rebar and concrete were incinerated.
PennDOT and contractors beat nearly impossible deadlines to build a temporary road within two weeks.
Harold Windisch, assistant district executive for construction of PennDOT, has been overseeing the permanent solution, one that will adequately handle the 160,000 vehicles that drive this section daily. Windisch, and the team led by local company, Buckley Construction, have been pushing to have the new road open by Memorial Day.
Chad Lavallee, construction supervisor and engineer of Buckley, has led a construction team that is set to finish the job in less than a year. The Buckley team has a few mini-projects before the rebuilt interchange is ready.
The construction team discovered during their work that the intense heat of the explosion melted the drainpipes under the Cottman Avenue ramp. Workers have installed a new drainage system. In the past couple of months, the Buckley team has been working on bridge decks and ramp repairs so that traffic can be shifted into its final position.
One decision that made this racehorse schedule possible was to use an unusual aggregate. Some exit ramps were going to have to be replaced for the new road, but utility lines lay close to the surface. The weight from traditional paving methods could endanger the crucial lines. Deadline pressures would not allow workers to move utilities.
The solution was to bring in Ultra-Light Foamed Glass Aggregates (UL-FGA) made from recycled glass. AeroAggregates, based in nearby Eddystone, provided the aggregate material. The UL-FGA aggregate was 85 percent lighter than traditional gravel or rock aggregate and was available for the compressed timetable of the project.
"We had used the UL-FGA before on other jobs," said Lavallee. "It required only a little compaction, and we could work with it in the rain. So, it was a big time saver, which has been very important on this project."
Another time saver presented when workers did corings on the bridge abutments and discovered they were still solid. Building new bridge abutments would have required new piles, rebar and concrete. "We were able to move ahead by using a hydraulic grinding process to chip away at the surface and replace the damaged rebar and concrete," said Lavallee.
HNTB employed a robot water jet for hydro demolition for the project. The machine shot water at 40,000 psi to flush out the damaged cement, a time saver over using a more traditional chipping gun.
"We were also able to use precast concrete in repairing the bridge," said Lavallee. "This was another big time saver. In everything we did, however, we kept safety as a high priority."
Gravix and Faddis Concrete provided the precast materials.
SJA Construction handled the paving, replacing the burned-out concrete road with asphalt — 15 in. thick — to match the previous road. The paving team topped the asphalt with an open-graded friction course to keep rainwater off the surface of the road. Workers added other safety features including coating the road with epoxy to provide more friction for vehicles making the difficult 90-degree turn on the exit ramp.
The construction team did not fireproof the underside of the bridge as this would prevent safety inspectors from examining the new bridge.
While the construction team was finding new ways to move the job ahead efficiently, PennDOT was finding some supply-chain surprises.
"We immediately began ordering supplies, knowing there would be supply chain issues," said Windisch. "When ordering steel beams, the delivery dates can be five weeks, sometimes double that."
One of his early surprises was from a steel fabricator located not far away in Lancaster, Pa.
"The company already had steel beams, 105-feet long, produced and ready for a job that would not be moving ahead until later in the year."
Girder plates, joints and other necessities also were available. The construction team used a Putzmeister telebelt with its telescoping arm to place the aggregate exactly where needed. This piece of equipment saved the team time and improved the accuracy of the placement.
While materials were being ordered and contractors selected, traffic planners were busy trying to figure out how to keep traffic moving. A temporary road would not be able to handle all the traffic. Of course, a city the size of Philadelphia has many alternate paths than just the interstate.
"Our overall traffic control system was challenging to get motorists around the burned-out section," said Windisch. "We added lanes to some ramps and roads. We also had great cooperation from city and state police to make it all happen."
PennDOT set up 28 message boards to keep motorists informed and used major thoroughfares like Roosevelt Boulevard, Route 1 and Cottman Avenue to carry heavier traffic burdens than normal.
Buckley's construction team noted that the workers had more than just deadline pressure on them.
"Many important people were watching us, including Gov. Shapiro, Pres. Biden and Transportation Secretary Buttigieg," said Lavallee. "I learned how interested people were in our project when I found out that a live feed and Instagram posts of our progress had been seen by some 400,000 people. They even showed a clip of our work on the Jumbotron at the Phillies' baseball game."
The construction team used more than 30 machines on the job to accomplish six months of work in two weekends. The machinery included a Komatsu 1250 excavator, Cat 395 crawler excavator, Cat 374 excavator, Cat 349 excavator and five haul trucks. CEG
Chuck MacDonald
Chuck MacDonald is an editor, blogger and freelance feature writer whose writing adventures have taken him to 48 states and 10 countries. He has been the editor for magazines on pavement construction, chemicals, insurance and missions. Chuck enjoys bicycling, kayaking and reading. He graduated from the University of Missouri with a degree in journalism. Chuck lives in Annapolis, Md. with his wife Kristen. They have seven grandchildren.
Read more from Chuck MacDonald here.
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