Cutting and Capping the Piles
< All-Day Closure on November 17th | Building the New Bridge |
Switching Over to the Detour >
On Monday, November 21,
2011, a second barge and crane were brought out to continue the bridge
construction. They
were the
American Construction Company Tugboat
Tulalip, 32.25
Ton Floating
Crane D.B. Snohomish, and Flat Barge
Everett.
The Barge Everett brought
with it the materials necessary to continue with the construction of the bridge,
which included gravel for inside the piles, the coated rebar cages, reinforcing
steel, and wooden form material.
American Construction has
started on the pile caps and estimate they will take 5 weeks to build. Their
schedule is to pour 3 pile caps per week.
At each of the new bent
locations, American Construction workers weld supports to each pile to support
aluminum scaffolding on the east and west side of the piles. The aluminum scaffolding
is used by the crew to cut the excess off the tops of the piles. The tops of the piles are
then cleaned up and repainted.
The inside of the piles are pumped of any excess water
and filled with gravel up to 2 feet below the bottom of the rebar cage, which
extends 10 feet into the pile.
"I" beam stubs are
welded to the east and west sides of the piles to support the
steel "I" beams that run north and south, which form the main support for the
base of the pile cap concrete form.
Wooden plates are attached to the top of
the steel "I" beam and will attach to the plywood base of the pile cap concrete
form. The wooden plywood platform is larger than the pile cap will be and
serves as a work platform also. The piles and formwork for the pile caps are
established both horizontally and vertically using a survey transit and are
marked on the plywood base to establish the exact location of the pile cap. The platform is built
to support the concrete forms, reinforcing steel, and prefabbed rebar cages
installed into the steel piles. The design of our bridge requires the pile
cap to sit on top of the pile. For this reason, a sheet metal shroud is
temporarily attached to each pile top to give this separation.
Once American Construction finishes the
base platform,
they call in the "Ironworkers" to place and tie the reinforcing steel
that will be cast inside of the concrete pile cap and attaches to the rebar cages
that are inserted into the
piles.
Removing excess water from the south pile of bent #14
Aluminum scaffolding
used to access the tops of the piles
Excess steel pile cut
and ready for the crane to remove
Pile cap with I-beam
stubs welded on and top repainted
North and south I-beams with wooden plates attached
Sheet metal shroud around top of pile cap
Wooden sub structure
of the pile cap base
Up-close picture of the pile,
shroud, substructure, and plywood pile cap base
Pile cap base and
work platform
Pile cap base with
the pile cap form base located and the rebar cages inserted into
steel pile
Ready for the Ironworkers!
On Monday, December 12th,
the ironworkers started building the rebar framework which will be inside each
of the new pile caps. The rebar cages protruding from the steel piles are
connected to this framework. American Construction
anticipates completing 3 pile caps per week. This
schedule will allow them to pour concrete
once a week for the next 5 weeks. This means at least one 4- to 5-hour closure of the
bridge per week.
Ironworkers starting on a pile cap
Ironworkers tying it all together
Ironworkers building one of the pile cap coated rebar structures
Upper supports added to tie the precast slabs together that go between pile caps
Pile cap partially formed for concrete
< All-Day Closure on November 17th | Building the New Bridge |
Switching Over to the Detour >
