Congratulations
to FCI Constructors for landing a joint venture with Kiewit Construction
Company and Manson Company to replace the East Span of the San Francisco-Oakland
Bay Bridge. This portion of the famous bridge connects Yerba Buena Island
and the city of Oakland. Work is now in the planning stage, with construction
slated for completion in early 2006. Coming in at $1,043,541,000, the replacement
will be known as the "Skyway Project." It includes constructing
two parallel, pre-cast segmental concrete bridges. Each bridge will be 2,100
meters long, and 27 meters wide. Each bridge will be comprised of 226 segments,
at a total weight of approximately 800 tons.
The bridges will be supported on 28 piers founded on 160 steel-shell, concrete
piles 2.5 meters in diameter, and 95 meters long. The joint venture's contract
is the second of four contracts for the bridge replacement. The remaining
contracts will build the self-anchored suspension span and tower, and demolish
the old bridge.
 An
enormous amount of up-front, off-site work must be completed before construction
can begin on this huge and technically challenging project. Sixty people
started working full time on April 1, 2002 in a temporary office in Oakland.
A permanent 25,000-square-foot office should be ready by June. At its peak
the staff on the job will be approximately 120 people.
Dredging and installation of access trestles are scheduled to begin in May
2002. Crews should start installing piles by December, followed by footing
boxes and concrete. Planning is well underway for establishing a pre-cast
segment construction yard. The first trial test segments will be built before
the end of 2002.
Here's the sequence of major components of the construction:
1. Dredge around foundations.
2. Install piles.
3. Install cofferdams.
4. Install and build pile caps.
5. Build pier columns and towers.
6. Set pier table at top of piers.
7. Set precast segments out from pier tables.
8. Pour closure at mid-span.
9. Complete all 24 spans.
continue>> |