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Projects
Lehigh
Southwest Supplies Cement for Winner of National Bridge Award
Lehigh
Southwest Cement Company supplied the cement for an
award-winning pedestrian bridge over the Rouge River in Grants
Pass, Oregon.
The bridge is a natural connection between Tussey Park
on the south side of the river and the Grants Pass All Sports
Park on the north side of the river.
The Portland Cement
Association (PCA) recognizes excellence
in design and construction of concrete bridges in the United
States every two years. The eight winners of the 2002 Biennial
Bridge Awards
Competition
received
an Award of Excellence at the American
Concrete Institute Awards Program held in March 2003 in
Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
A jury of three prominent bridge professionals selected
winners from a field of 55, based on creativity,
functionality, and economy.
Lehigh worked closely with the concrete supplier, Riverside
Ready Mix to meet the specifications for this unusual
bridge. The City of Grants Pass wanted a clear-span for the main channel of the river, because
recreational boaters use the river year-round.
Keeping construction activity out of the main channel
was crucial, as the river provides critical habitat for
threatened and endangered fish species.
The
658-ft (200.6 m) long pedestrian bridge with spans of 240-ft.
(73.1 m), 278-ft. (84.7 m), and 140-ft. (42.7 m), is the first
multi-span “stress-ribbon” bridge in the United States.
To erect a stress-ribbon bridge, the builders slide
precast concrete deck panels along bearing cable ribbons.
These ribbons are strung from and anchored at the
abutments on each side of the river. After overlaying the
panels with cast-in-place concrete, the crew then adds tension
to the strands. The
result: an extremely stiff yet slender concrete structure with
a main span depth of only 14 inches (356 mm). The deck
pour was particularly challenging requiring several trial
batches to accurately retard the concrete to allow for full
placement of the bridge deck before the concrete set. This
allowed time for the contractor to tension the bridge cables
while the concrete was still fresh. Master Builder’s
hydration stabilizer, Delvo, was used to retard the initial
set of the concrete for 8 hours.
As Greg
Juell, Sales Representative for Lehigh Southwest
explained, “this technology lets us build graceful, but
strong bridges, where we must minimize disturbance to the
environment. I am pleased that Lehigh helped Riverside Ready Mix get
an award for this innovative, beautiful and environmentally
sensitive bridge.” Dr.
Jiri Strasky, Consulting Engineer, architect and engineer, and
OBEC Consulting Engineers served
as key contributors on the project.
Other projects
IKEA Warehouse - Bakersfield
W.
Reyneveld Construction, Inc. in Bakersfield, CA produced
54,037.75 yards of concrete for this project in Fresno.
The square footage is as follows:
Slab:
717,309 Panels:
217,302 Paving: 754,844
All
cement used was from Lehigh Southwest's Tehachapi plant.
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