The Lunda/Ames design-build joint venture (Lunda Construction Company of Black River Falls, Wisconsin and Ames Construction, Inc. of Burnsville, Minnesota) has been awarded a contract to build the new Highway 61 Hastings Bridge over the Mississippi River in Hastings, Minnesota. Parsons Transportation Group is the designer and DBA is performing geotechnical design . . . → Read More: DBA on team for New Hastings, MN Bridge]]>

The Lunda/Ames design-build joint venture (Lunda Construction Company of Black River Falls, Wisconsin and Ames Construction, Inc. of Burnsville, Minnesota) has been awarded a contract to build the new Highway 61 Hastings Bridge over the Mississippi River in Hastings, Minnesota. Parsons Transportation Group is the designer and DBA is performing geotechnical design of the bridge foundations and settlement mitigation as a sub-consultant to PTG.

Here is the exisiting bridge that is being replaced (viewing from upstream):

In addition to several relatively large approach spans, the new bridge will include a 545ft long free-standing arch main span with four lanes of traffic and a 12 foot wide common use pedestrian/bike path. The new bridge will allow additional parking and an artistic plaza area south of the river. An anti-icing system will be installed to help achieve the 100-year design life.

On the south side of the Mississippi River, the bridge foundations will consist of spread footings bearing on dolostone bedrock. The remaining bridge foundations will utilize 42in diameter pipe piles. Several Statnamic load tests, both axial and lateral, will be performed by our friends at AFT.

Settlement mitigation is required beneath the North Embankment due to several relatively thick and deep strata of compressible fine-grained soils. The embankment will also be heavily instrumented to evaluate performance of the embankment and mitigation technique.

Preliminary work including subsurface investigation has begun. The subsurface investigation is being performed by Braun Intertec under sub-contract to DBA. Test piles will be installed in early September, 2010 with subsequent load testing soon after.

The awarded design-build contract is for $120M. The estimated project completion date is May 13, 2013.

DBA Project Page here.

Mn/DOT Hastings Bridge Project Home Page

Here is a sampling of the local news on the project award:

Hastings Star-Gazette

South Washington County Bulletin

Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal

With all of us visiting construction projects across the country, occasionally we take a photo that appears to be somewhat “artistic” – maybe the lighting (or lack of), or the aspect.  I have assembled a few such photos submitted by DBA engineers in the first installment of the DBA Artistic Construction Photo . . . → Read More: Artistic Construction Photo Contest – Volume 1]]>

With all of us visiting construction projects across the country, occasionally we take a photo that appears to be somewhat “artistic” – maybe the lighting (or lack of), or the aspect.  I have assembled a few such photos submitted by DBA engineers in the first installment of the DBA Artistic Construction Photo Contest. Included in this installment are such items as: “Daybreak on Night Shift at JJA” and “Fountain” by S. Dapp, the series “Evolution” by P. Axtell, “GI Rig at Sunset” by T. Siegel, and “Piles in the Mist” by R. Thompson.  This first volume has more photos of mine than others, but we’ll work on better balance in future volumes.

Feel free to “vote” for your favorite in the comments.  I’ll try to update periodically as we have more “worthy” photos!

The kcICON project continues . . . → Read More: kcICON Bond Bridge Article in Deep Foundations Magazine]]> The Spring 2010 issue of Deep Foundations from the Deep Foundations Institute includes an article by Dan and Paul (with a little help from yours truly!).  The article is based on our paper presented by Dan at the 34th DFI Conference on Deep Foundations last October in Kansas City.

The kcICON project continues to roll along.  Check out their Facebook page where they have lots of photos and links to their YouTube page.  They recently completed the widest bridge deck pour ever for MoDOT.

Go to our Publications page to see the article, or click the image below.

DBA is the geotechnical engineer for a pre-cast post-tensioned segmental concrete bridge that is part of what is called the “missing link” in the Foothills Parkway (see background information below) near the Great Smokey Mountains National Park. The National Park Service has awarded a design/build contract to Bell & Associates Highway Construction of . . . → Read More: Foothills Parkway Bridge No. 2 – Smokey Mountains, Tennessee]]>

DBA is the geotechnical engineer for a pre-cast post-tensioned segmental concrete bridge that is part of what is called the “missing link” in the Foothills Parkway (see background information below) near the Great Smokey Mountains National Park. The National Park Service has awarded a design/build contract to Bell & Associates Highway Construction of Brentwood, TN. VSL will cast and erect the post-tensioned segmental bridge. The lead bridge designer is Corven Engineering, Inc. of Tallahassee, FL. Palmer Engineering in Nashville, TN will be the structural/civil engineer for the project. Some design work was begun by FHWA Eastern Federal Lands Division in the 1990’s but was never completed and let for bid due to lack of funding. The process to complete the “missing link” has begun again using the design/build delivery system.

Since the purpose of the Parkway is to provide scenic views of the mountains and valleys, the project has strict requirements to minimize disturbance. In addition to special design and construction techniques (to be discussed in a later post after design is complete), Bell included significant attention to landscaping and site preservation. Hedstrom Design of Knoxville, TN is the landscape architect for the project, providing services key to minimizing impact on the site from construction activities, as well as providing a finished look to the the project that blends with the surrounding landscape.

Design work is well under way and Bell has started work at the site. The bridge is scheduled to be completed by November, 2011 – a very tight schedule!

A local news article about the project award is here in the Cherokee One Feather.

Click on the image to see a map of the Parkway (Source: Briefing Statement linked below):

Background information on the Parkway and the “Missing Link”:

Congress authorized the Foothills Parkway as a scenic parkway on February 22, 1944 (Public Law 232). The stated purpose of the Parkway is to provide beautiful vistas of the Great Smoky Mountains along their northern flank (TN) and to disperse traffic in the area. The entire 72-mile corridor is administered by Great Smoky Mountains National Park. To date, two discontinuous segments totaling 22.5 miles are completed and open. The Parkway parallels the Park’s northern boundary from Chilhowee Lake, TN (Section 8H) to I-40 near Cosby, TN (Section 8A).

Between 1966 and 1970, a 6.4-mile section of road between U.S. Highway 321 in Walland and Carr Creek (Section 8F), was constructed. In the 1980s, two contracts were awarded for construction of approximately 10 miles of road (Section 8E). Both projects experienced structural fill failures and erosion problems that caused the projects to be suspended in 1989, thus leaving a 1.65-mile segment uncompleted around Caylor Gap which is referred to as the “missing link.” In the 1990s, a new design was developed by the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) to complete the “missing link” using bridges, walls, and fills to minimize surface disturbance and environmental impacts.

Source: Briefing Statement, Great Smokey Mountains National Park, Completion of the Foothills Parkway, May 2009

DBA is on the successful team that was awarded the contract for the new Mississippi River Bridge in St. Louis, Missouri.  The project is a joint project of MoDOT/IDOT with MoDOT being the lead agency.  HNTB is the lead bridge designer for the new cable-stayed bridge carrying I-70 over the river.  The . . . → Read More: DBA on successful St. Louis Bridge team]]>

DBA is on the successful team that was awarded the contract for the new Mississippi River Bridge in St. Louis, Missouri.  The project is a joint project of MoDOT/IDOT with MoDOT being the lead agency.  HNTB is the lead bridge designer for the new cable-stayed bridge carrying I-70 over the river.  The bridge is one part of a larger project that also includes the Missouri North I-70 Interchange, the Illinois I-70 Connection, and the Illinois Tri-level Exchange.

From the project web site:

The $640 million Mississippi River Bridge project is proceeding through design, with construction scheduled to start in early 2010. The new Mississippi River Bridge is the first bridge built connecting downtown St. Louis and southwestern Illinois in more than 40 years. Currently, the only urban interstate bridge between Illinois and Missouri is the Poplar Street Bridge, known locally as the PSB. The PSB is one of two bridges in the United States that carry three interstates. By relocating one interstate (I-70) from the Poplar Street Bridge to the new Mississippi River Bridge, drivers will experience less congestion, fewer crashes and less unnecessary fuel use.

The new Mississippi River Bridge will be a 1,500 foot cable-stayed bridge across the Mississippi River between Metro East and St. Louis, Missouri. The bridge is two lanes in each direction, but is wide enough to be restriped for three lanes in each direction if traffic volumes warrant and additional funding is secured. In addition, the bridge project includes approaches on the Illinois and Missouri sides to get traffic to the bridge.

The wining contractor team is Massman/Traylor Brothers/Alberici Constructors.  DBA’s role was to help prepare an alternate concept for the drilled shaft foundation design which will include load test measurements.  We anticipate construction to begin in March with load test shaft.

An overview of the bridge is here.  The press release for the award of the main bridge is here.

I have updated our calendar for 2010 to include many events in the geotechnical and foundation engineering world that may be of interest, plus known speaking/teaching appearances by Dan.  I’ll put in a plug for the events calendars and listings for ADSC, DFI, Geo-Institute, and PDCA.  I get most of my information from . . . → Read More: Events Calendar Updated for 2010]]>  

I have updated our calendar for 2010 to include many events in the geotechnical and foundation engineering world that may be of interest, plus known speaking/teaching appearances by Dan.  I’ll put in a plug for the events calendars and listings for ADSC, DFI, Geo-Institute, and PDCA.  I get most of my information from them.

Some, but not all events,(in addition to my previous post) are:

DFI Helical Foundations & Tiebacks Specialty Seminar – Feb 1

    Geo-Florida 2010 – Feb 20-24

DFI and PDCA – A Joint Conference on Driven Pile – Mar 12

ADSC Drilled Shaft Foundations Seminar – Mar 19

PDCA 14th Annual International Conference and Expo – May 6-8

2nd International Symposium on Cone Penetration Testing – May 9-11

 International Bridge Conference 2010 – June 6-10

DFI Super Pile – June 10-11

Earth Retention 2010 – Aug 1-4

 DFI 34th Annual Conference on Deep Foundations – Oct 12-15 

TRB 7th International Bridge Conference – Dec 1-2