Design, Construction, and Construction Support Services for the Rehabilitation of the Northbound and Southbound Bruckner Expressway Bridges over CSX and Amtrak Railroads

This 24 month design-build project was broken up into a six month design phase followed by an 18 month construction phase.  The project was also divided into two distinct parallel bridges: Northbound and Southbound. 

The north-bound structure is a single span 125’ girder-bridge.  The work on this bridge has been divided into three stages of construction, with each stage being performed with hard lane closures, all while maintaining two lanes of main line and two lanes of service road traffic. 

North-bound work included replacement of the deck and superstructure, along with rehabilitation of the abutments.  For the new deck Judlau utilized eight pre-cast post tensioned panels per stage.  The top 10’ of abutments were also replaced using pre-cast post tensioned bridge seats and backwalls.  Pre-cast approach slabs and barriers were used to expedite construction.  Replacement of a 20” diameter water main and Con Edison electrical facility were also included in the project work.

The south-bound bridge is a three-truss 120’ long structure, with the center truss separating main line and service road traffic.  Sidewalks cantilever out from both outside trusses.  Work was divided into two main stages of construction, with only nightly soft closures permitted. 

South-bound work included replacing deck and truss bearing, painting of the entire truss structure, along with rehabilitating steel as needed to remaining structural members. Pre-cast approach slabs, barriers, sidewalks and backwalls were used to expedite construction.  The replacement of a 12” diameter water main and the installation of new Con Edison electrical facilities were also included in the project work.  High Early Strength concrete is being used to replace the 200’ of approach roadwork on each side of the bridge.         

To facilitate construction, a 50t custom overhead gantry crane was designed and utilized, as was an entire system of temporary deck panels to facilitate steel repairs and allow for nightly installation of the full width deck panels.  The new deck consisted of 12 pre-cast post tensioned panels per stage.