Tag Archives: Parsons Transportation Group

ENR’s Best of the Best 2012–Audubon Bridge

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The John James Audubon Bridge was recently selected as the Editor’s Choice/Transportation for ENR’s Best of the Best Projects for 2012.  The annual competition culminated in honoring ENR’s selection of the most outstanding construction projects in the U.s. And Puerto Rico complete between July 2011 and June 2012.

Nearly 1,000 project teams submitted their best work to ENR’s regional "Best Projects" competitions. For each of the nine regions, our editors assembled an independent panel of industry judges to home in on the winners in 19 categories. The winners of the regional contests moved on to the national competition. A different set of industry judges examined the projects to distinguish the "Best of the Best" in teamwork, success in overcoming challenges, innovation and quality. This year, a new award honors the safest project, judged by industry safety experts in both the regional and national competitions. Also, ENR’s editorial staff chose one special project as the "Editors’ Choice" to represent the pinnacle of design and construction excellence.

The Audubon Bridge won the Editor’s Choice – the editorial staff’s selection of the “pinnacle of design and construction excellence”.  Congratulations to everyone at Audubon Bridge Constructors (Flatiron, Granite and Parsons), Louisiana DOTD, and all who worked on the project!

Regular readers of our blog will be very familiar with the JJA as we often called it.   You can catch all of the geotechnical and foundation highlights on our project page, or check out previous posts.

Images from: ENR.com

DBA On Team for Hurricane Deck Bridge Replacement

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(Image source: LakeExpo.com)

DBA is part of a team led by Parsons Transportation Group that was selected to design the replacement of the Hurricane Deck Bridge over The Lake of the Ozarks in Camden County Missouri.  MoDOT has awarded the design contract to Parsons. DBA will be the lead geotechnical engineer with Terracon on the team providing drilling and laboratory services, as well as some foundation engineering support services.  Parsons was chosen due to the innovative approach the team proposed that includes reusing the existing piers (from ENR.com):

MoDOT chose Parsons for proposing an innovative approach to construction that involves the use of temporary pier widening and shifting the existing superstructure over. This method will allow traffic to be maintained on the existing bridge while the new bridge is constructed, potentially resulting in significant cost savings.

A little history of the bridge can be found at Go2Lakeofthe Ozarks.com, including how it got its name: 

Hurricane Deck Bridge of Ozarks crosses the main channel of the lake of approximately mile marker 35. It carries Missouri highway 5 between Versailles and Camdenton. It was built in 1936 –five years after the lake filled. It was named as Hurricane Deck because it was heard that a tornado struck that area which was locally "Hurricanes". It is a nautical term associated with river steamboats. The Hurricane Deck was the uppermost deck which provides and allows everyone to experience the pleasant breezy place and the passing scenery.

Other news links:

Lake News Online – 12/2/2010

Lake Expo.com – 12/2/2010

Biloxi Bay Bridge Test Pile Program – DFI Journal Volume 3, May 2009

 

 

Robert’s paper with Lloyd Held (retired from Eustis Engineering) and Steve Saye of Kiewit Engineering Company on the Biloxi Bay Bridge test pile program has been published in the latest issue of the DFI Journal, published by the Deep Foundations Institute.  A total of 22 indicator piles were installed on the project using the pile driving analyzer to monitor the pile behavior. Five load tests were performed: two axial Statnamic, two lateral Statnamic, and one static axial. The results of the test pile program established driving criteria for production piles that included end of drive blow counts and pile tip elevations with an appropriate allowance for setup.

 

Click on the image below or go to our Publications page.

 

Test Pile Program to Determine Axial Capacity and Pile Setup for the Biloxi Bay Bridge_ThompsonHeldSaye - DFI Journal Vol3-May09

 

The bridge was recently featured on the cover of Civil Engineering Magazine along with a feature article by Pat Cassity, P.E., S.E. of Parsons Transportation Group.  Source: ASCE

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