On the surface, the job looked simple enough. Knock down a three-lane highway overpass. Piece of cake, right? Not for this particular job on the Long Island Expressway (LIE).

Time constraints and traffic concerns hindered the process. From start to finish, the Shelter Rock Road Bridge had to be knocked down in the course of just 53 hours.

To add to the challenges, the contractor had about two days to prepare for the job. But with the help of heavy-duty Indeco breakers, the contractor completed the job in only 50 percent of the time allotted.

The Job

The structure crosses over six lanes (two spans) of the Northern State Parkway at Exit 27 near Manhasset, NY, where it adjoins the LIE. Here, Posillico-Scalamandre JV, Farmingdale, NY, a joint venture of J.D. Posillico, Westbury, NY, and Scalamandre Construction, Freeport, NY, is installing the HOV lanes on a section of the Long Island Expressway and replacing old bridges with new ones.

The total cost of the HOV-lane project on the LIE from the Queens-Nassau County border to Eastern Long Island is expected to top $500 million and be completed in 2004.

As part of the project, contracted by the New York State Department of Transportation, Posillico-Scalamandre is upgrading the bridges and approaches to the LIE, especially where Shelter Rock Road crosses over both the LIE and the Northern State Parkway.

The original Shelter Rock Road overpass was one of the first built on the Northern State Parkway in the 1930s — and designed by a man who didn’t drive a car (see box on page 170).

As one construction veteran observed, “The parkway overpasses, entrances and exits were built to last forever, but only for 35-mph traffic. They are unsafe by today’s design standards.”

Indeed, the old overpass was gracefully curved — but with dangerously low clearances on the sides that could trap today’s high-profile vehicles.

Timing

According to Mike Alessi, project manager for Posillico, who is supervising this part of the project, it’s a matter of timing. “We installed the new Shelter Rock Road bridge and have been waiting since May to tear the old one down. The problem is the window. We had to close down the Northern State, so that means starting after 10 p.m. Friday and working straight through, the first part under lights, so we can finish by 3 p.m. Sunday.”

If the joint venture worked past 3 p.m. Sunday, they would have hit weekend traffic and Monday rush hour.

Equipment

“When we did finally get the go-ahead, we had about two days notice,” said Alessi. Finding equipment on such short notice in the current market — supplies are tight all over the New York region — wasn’t easy.”

Fortunately, Amaruso Equipment, College Point, NY, was able to supply the muscle — a clutch of heavy-duty Indeco hydraulic breakers.

The largest Indeco breakers are the model HD8500, a 12,000 ft./lb. (16,272 Nm) rated unit, and the HD7000, a 10,000 ft-lb (9,763 Nm) unit, installed on Caterpillar 245D and 350 excavators, respectively. They made short work of the bridge, knocking down the first of two spans in about 15 hours, enabling the contractor to beat the deadline by almost 24 hours, or almost 50 percent. This included closing the highway, set-up, knockdown, cleanup and reopening the road.

After knocking down the first of the two old Shelter Rock Road spans in record time, the joint venture went back later and finished the job, again well within the time allotted.

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