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>> GREGG ZACK: "Hi, my name is Gregg Zack. I'm the delivery engineer at the Muskegon TSC."
>> NATE VANDRUNEN: "Hi, my name is Nate VanDrunen. I work at MDOT in the Grand Region Office."
>> GREGG ZACK: "We're currently located in downtown Whitehall
and where we're going to be replacing this superstructure of a bridge, a small bridge, over the White Lake Bike Path."
>> NATE VANDRUNEN: "We're standing out here in the yard of Kerkstra Precast,
as you can see, there's precast concrete of all shapes and sizes.
The reason we're here is we’re going to take a look at precast superstructure
elements for a project we have up in Whitehall, Michigan."
>> GREGG ZACK: "What we're going to do different in this project is, as we’re doing the removals,
right now, as we speak, the brand new superstructure, which includes the beams and the deck, are being built off-site."
>> NATE VANDRUNEN: "What's exciting about this project is that, while we're standing here, a crew is getting ready
for a concrete pour for one of these precast segments. At the same time,
the contractor is in Whitehall on-site beginning to demo the existing concrete and steal beams of the bridge."
>> GREGG ZACK: "So approximately two weeks from now we'll be totally done with all our removals,
the abutment will be ready to take the brand new beams and deck and
they will be brought out in pieces.
They will be brought out and there is going to be eight separate pieces of the deck and beams and they're approximately
9-feet wide and 21 1/2-feet long."
>> NATE VANDRUNEN: "So we’re going to take a look at one of these precast pieces.
Underneath this concrete deck is two steel tub girders. These tub girders are shallow and light.
As you can see here, we've got about a 9 1/2-foot concrete deck with the back walls poured intergral with the deck.
What you're looking at here is the concrete paving seat with the approach can be set right on there.
These lifting loops are to pick the bridge up, put it on a truck,
which gets delivered to the project site. At the project site, the crane can hook on to these lifting loops
and set these sections in place.
Some of the unique features of this bridge are these connection plates.
These connection plates have anchor studs on them that are imbedded into the concrete.
Once these prefabricated bridge elements are set next to each other on the abutment,
these plates will be welded together. After they are welded together, this keyway is going to be grouted with a high strength grout."
>> GREGG ZACK: "That whole place is going to take one day, possibly a day and a half
and, in essence, the deck will all be in place as soon as the removal is done.
So from start to finish for this project, it will be built in approximately 6 weeks,
that will be from removal time, to placement, to open to traffic."
>> NATE VANDRUNEN: "The major advantage to using this type of a prefabricated bridge system is the time savings.
Many construction tasks can be completed at the same time, reducing the project duration.
A typical project where we would set beams, form up a deck, pour the deck,
and then also cure the deck on-site would take anywhere from 9 to 10 weeks.
In this case, project start to finish will be approximately 5 to 6 weeks.
In addition to that, precasting these segments off-site increases quality and worker safety
because of the indoor environment and climate control.
This project is an example of ABC, it stands for Accelerated Bridge Construction.
More specifically, prefabricated bridge elements or systems are one component of the FHWA initiative: 'every day counts.'
By constructing the bridge in this way, many construction tasks can be competed at the same time,
allowing for a much shorter construction duration."
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