Work has begun to construct temporary piers to support the I-43 Leo Frigo Bridge. Pier 22 of the bridge settled approximately 2.5 feet in late September/early October. The new piers are being constructed by Lunda Construction. The goal of the structures is to prevent any additional settlement of the deck. The bridge will remain closed pending a permanent solution. The ENR article did not list what the piers will be founded on, but the conceptual drawings available from WisDOT seem to show drilled shaft foundations. [Source: ENR: Engineering News Record. Image: WisDOT via ENR]
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MOUNT AIRY, NC—Soil consolidation and settlement happens. It’s a fact of farm life. Secondary consolidation slowly forces water out of the spaces between soil particles. As this happens, soil particles move close together and settling occurs. Floors drop and become uneven. Newer grain silos and bins are using concrete floors instead of metal, and as secondary consolidation occurs beneath them, depressed or “settled” areas, form within the bin. Grain accumulates in the depressed areas, but cannot be retrieved by the bin sweeper. In fact, the sweeper, a kind of auger that transports grain up from the floor, can become damaged from prolonged exposure to the uneven floor.
This is exactly what Kirk Roberts of CJGeo, a Williamsburg, Virginia-based commercial foundation repair and geotechnical contractor, found when he got the job to repair the foundation of a massive 106-foot diameter grain bin at a poultry processing facility on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. “Once they removed the hundreds of thousands of bushels of grain, we found the floor had dropped some three inches in one section of the bin leaving a large pocket of grain out of reach of the bin sweeper.”
[Editor] Read on for the rest of this press release from GeoPrac sponsor NCFI Polyurethanes. [/Editor]
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The City of North Haven is located on an island off the coast of Maine. This town was faced with a unique challenge when a bridge needed replacing. Looking for an economical option, designers decided on a Geosynthetic Reinforced Soil – Integrated Bridge System (GRS-IBS). This solution allowed the town and DOT to re-use an existing bridge pier, beat the construction deadlines, and provide a modern bridge solution for this small town.
[Editor] Read on for more on this fascinating project in a contributed article by Lindsey Manthei O’Connor of Redi-Rock! [/Editor]