Rusted steel was removed from the bridge

Situation:  

On October 6, 1999, rusted beams on the Carrey Avenue bridge in Wilkes-Barre, PA came off the member to which they were attached, resulting in a dip of about a foot in the road. The 51-year old truss bridge was in danger of collapse.  The decision was made to shut down the entire bridge immediately for the repairs and an in-depth inspection of the other seven spans. 

Action:

After the state Secretary of Transportation granted approval to proceed with selection of a contractor without going through the formal bid process, High Steel Structures, Inc.'s Field Operations was called in on October 8th by PennDOT's District 4 to come up with a plan of action. 

The bridge was closed until the repairs were finished. 22,000 motorists use the bridge each day.

Drawing on the resources of the company's fabrication expertise and capacity, High Steel had amassed the materials needed and assembled a crew three days later.  "It's very unique to have a construction crew who can call the fabrication plant and get the steel needed put immediately into production," said Greg Wilson, PennDOT squad leader who headed up the project.

The job called for cutting out a compromised section of the road, removing the beams and replacing them with new sections, and replacing the bridge deck.  Work continued around the clock, with two crews of five working 12-hour shifts.  High Steel expedited the task of stringing cables by bringing a Snooper Crane to the site, eliminating the need to erect scaffolding. 

Repairs were ultimately made across all seven spans.

Result:

High Steel completed the work on the failed section of the bridge in less than two weeks, a week ahead of the most optimistic estimates by PennDOT.  The bridge was reopened to one lane of traffic on October 19th.  High Steel continued working on the bridge, repairing other trouble spots discovered during the inspection.  The entire project was completed on October 27th.

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