Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

REOPENING CLOSED BRIDGES IN NEW YORK CITY

1990; Public Works; Volume: 121; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

0033-3840

Samuel I. Schwartz, J DePlasco,

Concrete Corrosion and Durability

The 85-year-old Williamsburg Bridge was closed on April 12, 1988, after an inspection revealed severely deteriorated steel and concrete supports. Immediately following closure, New York City began further inspections and emergency repairs. An average of 125 workers, including engineers, inspectors, iron workers, painters, and laborers, toiled seven days a week, 12 hours a day to restore service as quickly as possible. Six thousand steel members were inspected, over 1,000 calculations made to analyze deteriorated sections, 150 tons of new steel added for reinforcement at 200 different locations, and all repair work inspected and certified by professional engineers. The equivalent of a major capital reconstruction job was completed in three and a half months. The phenomenal success of the Williamsburg Bridge repairs led the city to consider similar methods to reopen other closed bridges. An important lesson learned was the use of in-house workers along with contractors. Unlike the contractors, the in-house workers were not limited by contract to a defined scope of work and could be directed to do any work necessary. Of the 29 other closed or partially closed bridges, 16 were repaired and reopened by November 1989, 12 are scheduled for reconstruction between 1992 and 1995 (including seven that were opened in the interim), and 8 were scheduled to be demolished by 1992. Also included in this article are some details of the repairs of the elevated section of FDR Drive, the Henry Hudson Parkway Ramp in upper Manhattan, and the Carroll Street Bridge over the Gowanus Canal in Brooklyn. While there are now some 400 bridges in New York City that are structurally deficient, the success to date of the city's reopening program has shown that, unlike other urban problems, this problem is not intractable. By the year 2000 the city does not expect to have one bridge in less than good condition.