Randolph Bridge Construction

2008-10-14T05:55:00.000-07:00

The lines were installed today. The project is now Complete

2008-09-23T09:53:00.000-07:00

Because the bridge will expand and contract
due to temperature changes, a joint must be installed
so that there will not be a large crack in the pavement
on each end of the bridge. The type of joint for this
bridge is called a Asphaltic Plug Joint.
First 18" of pavement is removed over the end of the
bridge at each abutment. A steel plate is placed over
joint, and then a rubber type material is hot poured
in the joint and ¾" aggregate is mixed in the hot
rubber. This allows a very smooth riding joint that is
also very durable.

2008-07-29T09:44:00.000-07:00

Paving to top lift of Bituminous concrete Pavement.
The lift thickness is 1 ½" thick.

2008-07-28T09:41:00.000-07:00

Paving New England Land Company's Parking lot.

2008-07-25T08:50:00.000-07:00

Pike brought in a grinding machine (cold planer)

to grind the begin edge for paving.

We will be paving Monday and Tuesday July 28 & 29

2008-07-23T08:46:00.000-07:00

Working on grading and added concrete curbing

for the New England Land Company parking lot.

2008-07-15T08:48:00.000-07:00

Staging area cleaned up and a stone ditch added

to the edge of prince street.

2008-07-11T08:42:00.000-07:00

The last of the concrete sidewalk being placed

on the north end of the bridge.

2008-07-09T06:10:00.000-07:00

Installing granite curbing and sign bases for
the Vt 12A Island.

Pouring concrete for sidewalk and adding final
touches to the Vt12A Island.

2008-06-26T08:00:00.000-07:00

Paving the first of two layers of Pavement
on Prince Street.

2008-06-20T07:57:00.000-07:00

Stone retaining wall re-stacked. Hand rail added.

2008-06-16T07:45:00.000-07:00

Photo of retaining wall in late 2006.

Dismantled the stone retaining wall that was in
front of the house just west of the Fire Station.
The two 24" maple trees that had to be
removed when the power lines were re-routed.
Winterset removed the stumps, and in this photo
you can see the sleeves for the concrete which
will hold a new hand rail. The steps will not be redone.

2008-06-03T06:37:00.000-07:00

Plans called for raising the Sewer Manhole cover

on Prince Street that was supposed to be in the new

roadway just west of the bridge (almost under the bridge).

It wasn't there. We spent two days with the town running

camera's up from the next manhole. It was very hard to

locate. We finally found it.

It had been buried years ago in about 10' of embankment.

And because it was further north than it was supposed to be,

we had broken part of the pipe right next to the manhole.

We were very lucky last summer when driving the steel

sheets to the temporary detour abutment. We came close

enough to break the pipe, but not plug it.

In the end, it cost us three days of work and instead of just

raising the lid, we had to build a new manhole from the

base up.

2008-05-23T06:26:00.000-07:00

Finished the side slopes on the Northwest corner
of the bridge. Brought the driveway that goes down
behind New England Land Company Driveway up
to it's final grade.

2008-05-19T06:18:00.000-07:00

Working on the side slope of Price Street.

Adding Stone Fill over Geotextile fabric.

2008-05-01T05:54:00.000-07:00

The Winterset work crew working on the Solid waste bridge over I-91 in Hartford could not work on that project during the last week in April. They returned to Randolph and spent this week working on the stone fill slope on the upstream - north side of the bridge.

2008-04-25T05:48:00.000-07:00

Winterset worked the winter on projects in Bristol New Hampshire and the bridge across the Connecticut River in Haverhill NH. They resumed construction of the bridge over the I-91 in Hartford this spring also.
There has not been any activity on this project since December. The project wintered well with no apparent problems. The concrete rail has many small cracks that are typical with this type of rail. In fact, even though there are many cracks, there are less cracks than other projects have had using this same design. Maybe the use of AA concrete aggregate with HP-B concrete has helped to reduce the cracking??

Winter

2008-02-07T07:35:00.001-08:00

Snow is clogging the temporary intersection at

the junction of 12 and 12A. We will have to

work on snow removal.

Winterset has not been on site since mid December.

They have active projects in Bristol NH and Haverhill NH.

2007-12-21T05:24:00.000-08:00

Winterset has shut down operations for the winter.

On a side note: The Ice Skating rink has opened.

2007-12-14T10:37:00.000-08:00

Winterset has spent this week loading out materials

and equipment to shut down the operations

until next April. The crane in the photo has

had it's weights removed, and the tracks moved in

in prepartion of being hauled out soon.

2007-12-10T10:34:00.000-08:00

Guardrail on Prince Street.

2007-12-06T10:14:00.001-08:00

Installing guardrail on Prince Street.

Removing the temporary detour abutment

2007-12-03T14:58:00.000-08:00

10" to 12" Snow on Monday. No work.

2007-11-30T11:04:00.000-08:00

Finishing up removing the temporary abutment.

Finishing the Prince Street slopes and resetting
the street light.

2007-11-29T10:02:00.000-08:00

Removing the steel sheeting that made up the

temporary abutment for the detour.

2007-11-27T15:46:00.000-08:00

Sammis retaining wall.

2007-11-20T10:17:00.000-08:00

Winter Arrived today. No Work.

2007-11-19T00:00:00.000-08:00

Adding Stone Fill to the Prince Street slopes.

Concrete for the retaining wall placed today.

2007-11-16T10:25:00.000-08:00

Adding the front face form with a stone pattern
form liner so that the concrete looks like a stone wall.

Added some more drainage to prince street.

2007-11-14T12:38:00.000-08:00

Winterset continues to excavate the inner part of
Prince Street. Drainage from main street will
discharge into this settling area inside the curve
of the road. From there an outlet pipe will drain the
water the rest of the way to the river.

Forming the retaining wall that will be along
the side of the driveway that we had to raise
along with raising the north end of the bridge.

Remove the Maybe bridge

2007-11-09T10:42:00.000-08:00

Area prepared to roll the bridge onto.

Rolling the bridge onto to the dismantling area.

Dismantling the Maybe bridge into pieces.

2007-11-06T12:18:00.000-08:00

Winterset continues to remove the detour.

2007-11-02T15:00:00.000-07:00

Building a retaining wall for the side of the driveway

that is across from Cumberland Farms.

2007-11-01T11:54:00.000-07:00

Rebuilding Prince Street

2007-10-29T12:45:00.000-07:00

Removing the detour is the next thing to do.

2007-10-25T12:27:00.000-07:00

Paving the second to last layer of pavement is complete,
and the bridge is open.

We will now be working on removing the temporary
bridge and rebuilding Prince Street.

2007-10-24T10:02:00.000-07:00

The first of two lifts of pavement is being paved

today. The top lift will be paved next June.

2007-10-22T10:40:00.000-07:00

This machine is called a cold planer. It's here to

plane the hotmix surface in the areas where the

old hotmix meets the new to create a smooth

transition.

2007-10-22T10:37:00.000-07:00

Installing the membrane on the deck of the bridge.

The membrane is a sheet of waterproof material that

looks a lot like asphalt roof shingle. The machine

heats the asphalt material and melts the sheet to

the deck. The surface is a stone type grit to protect

asphalt material until it gets paved (Wednesday).

2007-10-22T07:48:00.000-07:00

There is a lot going on today.

Winterset working on the final segment of Texas Rail on the abutement.

Winterset working on Cumberland Farms driveway.

Gendron working on Cumberland Farms curb and sidewalk.

AD Rossi installing the deck membrane.

2007-10-18T15:15:00.000-07:00

Installing some of the project drainage system

on the south end of the project.

2007-10-16T12:20:00.000-07:00

Three of the six lights were installed today.

2007-10-16T09:23:00.000-07:00

Working on landscaping the Cumberland Farms

sidewalk area.

2007-10-15T09:31:00.000-07:00

Working on the sidewalks on the south end
of the bridge.

Working on landscaping in front of Cumberland Farms

2007-10-10T06:48:00.000-07:00

The Last Section of the downstream side of the
concrete bridge rail was completed. The two
end pieces that don't have window slots are still
not done

Center Pilaster of the Texas Rail.

2007-10-09T13:26:00.000-07:00

Working on the roadway concrete sidewalk.

The bridge crew placed the 5th- 33' segment of

Concrete 'Texas Rail' today, one more and the

right side will be done.

2007-10-05T09:41:00.000-07:00

working on the 'rubbing' part of the Texas Rail.
This is an all day process for four people to hand
rub the day old concrete to remove the bubbles
and imperfections for a 33' section.

We still have to keep the rail wet during the
rubbing process. One guy spends the day moving
around burlap and keeping the uncovered portions wet.

The rest of the crew continues to form the
upcoming rail segments. The roadway crew is
still working of sidewalk prepartion and granite
curbing.

2007-10-04T05:59:00.000-07:00

Here is the first look at the Texas Rail.

2007-10-03T05:53:00.000-07:00

FR Lafayette was here today installing granite

curb for the face of sidewalk in the roadway part

of the project.

2007-10-02T13:44:00.000-07:00

Forming the "Texas Rail" bridge railing. The wood

blocks will be the windows through the rail.

I did not reduce the image size, so double click on the picture

to open it in a larger format.

To see a picture of what Texas Rail looks like when

it's complete, scroll to the bottom of the page left side.

2007-10-01T13:40:00.000-07:00

Paving the 5" of base course. This was a long day
of difficult paving. The traffic was very heavy, slowing
the progress down, which blocked the traffic, which slowed
the paving, which blocked the traffic....etc..

2007-09-28T13:03:00.000-07:00

Today we finished the concrete for the sidewalks
across the bridge.

Working on adding dense graded crushed stone
to the subbase on the south end of the bridge.
Traffic was so heavy today that we didn't get
all of it done in preparation for the paving crew
to cover it on Monday. It's amazing how many
people are out and driving around in the middle
of a weekday in this town.

2007-09-27T13:43:00.000-07:00

The subbase on the north end is now up to bottom

of pavement level. The detour is now very steep.

We will pave the parts of the detour that we have

disturbed on Monday when we pave the new part

of the roadway.

2007-09-26T13:33:00.000-07:00

Now that the roadway is higher and the waterline
installed, they then could put the stormwater
drainage system over it. Maintaining traffic with
this work is very difficult and we hear of big delays.
We have no choice but to run one way traffic through
the project for part of the day.

We Placed a small part of the concrete sidewalk.

2007-09-25T13:32:00.000-07:00

Tying epoxy coated reinforcing steel for the
concrete sidewalk with granite curb.

With the roadway grade now up closer to finish grade

we then could make the final connection of the 12" waterline.

2007-09-24T13:57:00.000-07:00

Today we poured the concrete for approach slab 2 and made

the final connection for the fiber optic conduits. But the biggest
part of the day was to remove the old pavement and build the roadway
up higher with crushed stone. The amount of traffic in
Randolph in the middle of a Monday is incredible. Traffic must be stopped
in one lane while we work on the other, and this backs traffic up big time.
We hope to have it all ready for paving by next Monday.

2007-09-21T13:21:00.001-07:00

Concrete being placed for abutment 1 approach slab.
This is the transition area from the roadway to the bridge.
Without one a bump usually develops over time.

Installing drop inlets, drain pipes and fiber optic conduit lines.

2007-09-20T13:19:00.000-07:00

Setting the granite curb along the sidewalks on the bridge.

2007-09-19T13:50:00.001-07:00

Concrete encased ducts for fiber optic phone lines and
storm water drains installed on the North end of the bridge.

Working on the 12" waterline.

The concrete must wet cure for 10 days. The brown is
burlap cloth and there are sprinkler hoses on top.

2007-09-17T07:19:00.000-07:00

Concrete pumped onto the deck, and then screeded.

Wet Burlap added very close behind the operation.

click the > to play a short video of the placement

2007-09-14T06:07:00.000-07:00

Deck reinforcing steel is nearly complete. The Yellow machine in the middle of the bridge is called a screed machine. The concrete will be pumped onto the deck, and the screed machine will smooth the concrete out to a uniform 9" thick layer. We will start Monday morning and the 250 cy will be placed in about 5 hours.

2007-09-11T07:22:00.001-07:00

Epoxy Coated Reinforcing steel being placed on the deck.

Some of the crew are working on the waterline adding insulation and heat tape. The above picture is where the waterline comes through the backwall on the abutment.

2007-09-08T07:05:00.001-07:00

Welding shear connectors (studs) onto the tops of the girders. They look like big nails welded to the steel. This is what connects the concrete to the structural steel. They guy doing the welding is Ralph Darrah. He grew up in nearby Rochester.

2007-09-07T06:34:00.000-07:00

The Stay-in-Place forms are now complete.

Forming the outside portion of the deck with wood forms that will be removed after the deck is cured.
On a side note, I have had a lot of comments about the steel girders being rusty. The weathering process (rust) that occurs after installation eventually decreases and from that point on the finish acts as a protective coating for the base metal. This steel never completely stops rusting. It develops an oxide on its surface that essentially stops corrosion.
Funny....rust that stops rust.

2007-09-06T09:43:00.000-07:00

We continue to add SIP forms for the concrete deck. Shear Studs Saturday, Reinforcing and fascia forms thoughout the week. Possible deck pour on Monday the 17th

2007-09-04T13:34:00.000-07:00

Installing Stay-in-Place forms for the concrete deck

2007-08-30T12:20:00.000-07:00

Double click on the photo, and it will open full size.

I just went on a really cool ride and thought I'd share the pictures

2007-08-30T08:18:00.000-07:00

Working on the 12" waterline in the South end of the bridge.

This is the special connection for the 12" waterline from the roadway to the bridge.

They are nearly finished with installing the waterline on the bridge.

Now that the concrete for abutment two is complete up to almost the roadway level, we will be able to backfill the area with gravel and finish much of the stone fill around the abutment. The bridge decking will begin soon. Possibly poured on Sept. 17th. They will start putting down the Stay in Place decking on Friday.

2007-08-28T11:39:00.000-07:00

Forming Wingwall 3. We will pour the concrete on Wednesday and Thursday for the backwall and both wingwalls this week.

Installing 12" waterline through a 24" sleeve that passes through the backwall and under the approach slab.

Conduit for Verizon fiber optic lines.

2007-08-24T12:18:00.000-07:00

Thursday was a long day adding the new 12" water line to the existing town system. Businesses on Prince street were without water for the entire day while the two connections were made.

Another part of the crew spent most of the day working on replacing the old clay pipe sewer line and old brick sewer manhole very close to abutment 2.

Winterset continues to work on forming Abutment 2 backwall and wingwalls.

2007-08-21T14:03:00.000-07:00

All Girders are now set. Winterset spent the day finishing installing the cross braces, torqueing bolts and forming abutment two backwall.

Installing Conduit for Verizon phone lines and drainage on the south end of the bridge. Note the Manhole on the right. Sewer crosses under the conduit and drainage here. Also, an 8" water line crosses under both just a few feet south of the sewer line. It connects to a 12" water line on the other side of the road in this area.

2007-08-20T05:17:00.000-07:00

The 75' long pieces are being put in place today.

2007-08-15T14:11:00.000-07:00

We struggled putting in the diaphragms (the braces in between the beams), so we only got four of the five set in place today. We will put the 5th girder in tomorrow. The curved plate girders are 125’ long and weigh about 35,000 lbs each. The bigger cranes placing the beams are 100 ton cranes. The smaller crane (hydraulic) is a 60 ton crane.

2007-08-15T06:41:00.000-07:00

The Beams have arrived.
Two arrived in town last night so we were able to start first thing.

2007-08-14T13:03:00.000-07:00

Update on Bridge beams. The beams will arrive today and will be parked on route 66 across from the golf course for the night. We will start setting the beams first thing Wednesday morning.

2007-08-13T10:37:00.000-07:00

We are still on for setting steel beams for wednesday. We had thought that we needed to move the schedule up to Monday, but that is no longer true.

2007-08-09T07:56:00.000-07:00

Abutment 2 is now complete up to bridge seat elevations. Steel girders are scheduled to arrive on August 15th and 16th. We will be running one way traffic both days, so expect delays. Seek alternate routes.

Pulling cofferdam sheets from abutment two.

Adding stone fill to the front side of Abutment two.

2007-08-01T08:47:00.000-07:00

The first concrete pour went up only about 15 feet. This is a picture of forming the next 8 feet up. This is where steel girders will sit.

Backfilling Abutment 2 with two cranes swinging in small pans.

2007-07-27T10:41:00.000-07:00

Abutment Two was poured up to within 8' of the Bottom of the steel beams this week. About 150 cy of concrete.

Winterset worked on Subbase of crushed stone, the roadway base for Prince Street down on the lower end. They used the excavated material from the roadway to build a crane pad for unloading the steel beams that will arrive in the third week of August.

2007-07-23T14:03:00.000-07:00

Russell Tinkham working on the bulkhead for the construction joint between the center portion of abutment 2 and wingwall 4

2007-07-20T09:03:00.000-07:00

Winterset tying the reinforcing steel, getting ready for the concrete.
Two 110 tons cranes using 2CY buckets placed the concrete.
142 Cubic Yards of Concrete and 14,200 Lbs of Reinforcing steel placed Wednesday for the Abutment 2 footing.

Excavator placing stone fill on geotextile fabric on the eastern slope of abutment 1. This is on the lower portion of Prince Street.

2007-07-16T12:52:00.000-07:00

Working on Abutment 2 Footing. L Bars are #11's and weigh 138 pounds so they have to be individually set by crane. We should be ready for concrete on Wednesday morning.

We've started installing the drainage at abutment 1.

Adding waste material to the slope on Prince Street getting ready to add stone fill to the slope.

Over 6" Rain in Randolph

2007-07-12T04:18:00.000-07:00

Light rain in the morning didn't bother, but the heavy rain that started about 1:00 ended work for the day. Over 6" of rain in flooded us out. The erosion control bituminous curb we installed on the north end helped contain much of the runoff in the abutment two area.

The pavement on the road on the south end of the bridge has deep ruts, so a lot of water ran by the drop inlets (drains) and eroded the gravel backfill along the west side of abutment one.

Some gravel washed down onto the concrete subfooting we placed on tuesday, but was for the most part well contained.

We had just placed the stone fill around the pier last Friday. Erosion around the pier and the work bridge was minimal.

A lot of wood debris and trees came down the river. Nothing got hung up on the work bridge. A large tree did get hung up on the scour sheeting just downstream of the work bridge.

2007-07-06T08:27:00.000-07:00

The contractor continues to remove solid rock in the footing area of abutment 2

2007-07-02T11:50:00.000-07:00

Excavator and hoe-ram removing ledge in the abutment two footing area

Pier as seen looking south

2007-06-29T04:38:00.000-07:00

Today we continued to work on abutment 2 cofferdam, and now that the seven day cure is up on the pier, much of the pier has been stripped.

2007-06-26T12:33:00.000-07:00

Abutment 2 will be doweled on ledge. Ledge is exposed on the left side of this photo

The concrete from the 1925 bridge was not very strong. This part of the bridge came apart more easily than the 1928 portions.

In the left side of the photo note a temporary work bridge installed to access the abutment 2 work area.

River diversion in place, demolition of the last span of the 1928 bridge begins.

2007-06-26T12:13:00.000-07:00

Finishing the bridge seats on the top of the pier

Froming the top half of the pier stem
First half of the Pier stem done. In this photo, Winterset is working on building a river diversion for demolition of the remainder of the old 1928 bridge. We had to get an ammended Army Corps permit to do this work.

Forming the Pier Footing on top of the subfooting.

2007-06-26T12:00:00.000-07:00

Forming above the bridge seats

Backfilling abutment 1

Abutment 1 and wingwall 2 walls

Abutment one footing

Piles being driven in the footprint of abutment 1

2007-06-26T11:56:00.000-07:00

The retaining wall on the southern approach needed to be moved farther from the edge of the road. It was still aligned to the roadway from the 1925 bridge.

2007-06-26T11:48:00.000-07:00

Demolition of the old bridge begins minutes later.

In May the detour is completed and traffic switched to the Mabey bridge.

2007-06-26T11:32:00.000-07:00

Debris from the remenents of the 1925 bridge make installing the cofferdam sheets a slow process.

Through a change in design, they change from drilled shaft to spread footing for the pier.

But they continue to work on the project anyway. They build the timber retaining wall

Winterset is unsucessfull in their attempt to open the detour before the paving plants shut down for the winter.

Contractor spends the fall building the temporary detour.

Winterset is the low bidder. Clearing begins

Contract letting date set for new main street bridge 09/29/06

1928 Bridge

2007-06-26T10:36:00.000-07:00

The new bridge is open to traffic less than one year.

The bridge that replaces the washed out structure is much longer, spanning the entire washed out southern approach. Prince Street curves of the upstream side swinging down and under the new bridge. Abutment one and the approach to the 1925 bridge was retained.

1925 Bridge

2007-06-26T10:27:00.000-07:00

The northern abutment and part of the approach does survive.
Water and debris could not fit through the narrow channel under the bridge, so it washes out a large part of the southern approach.
The great flood of November 3-5, 1927 wipes out many bridges in Vermont including the new bridge. The river changes is course from over near Randolph Avenue to a straight shot downstream.

2007-06-26T10:24:00.000-07:00

1925 the covered bridge is replaced with a steel plate girder beam bridge with a concrete deck.

Covered Bridge

2007-06-26T10:11:00.000-07:00

A dam just upstream of the bridge powered the gristmill.

In the early 1920's automobile traffic doomed the covered bridge. Note that a sidewalk was added to the downstream side of the structure. A blacksmith shop is on the left and a gristmill is on the right.

Prior to 1924 a Covered bridge was at this site. Notice that the span is about 60'. The southern abutment is built out into the flood plain. Prince Street exits on the downstream side.