Minimizing interruptions to travelers during a $ 220 million project to paint and repair the traffic extension of a widely used bridge between Chester, Bread and Bridgeport, NJ literally depends on the way the wind blows.
Located near the mouth of the Delaware River, he exposes the narrow trouble of Barry Barry bridge in wind conditions and other natural elements, the complexity that required a “complex phase process to complete cleaning and painting for all steel superstructure,” says Rebecca Clark, vice president of Civil Skanska use. The bridge is an important link for travelers and travelers in the Philadelphia area in New Jersey.
Commodore Barry Bridge, a vital transport bond between Pennsylvania and New Jersey, spent 15.1 million vehicles in 2024, with an average of more than 41,000 daily vehicles.
Courtesy of the River de Delaware Port Authority
Skanska Koch Inc., a USA Civil Skanska Division, started the third phase of the project in December 2024 and hopes to finish the first quarter of 2028. The first phase, a $ 19.7 million installation of a coating system, completed in 2016; The second phase, a value of $ 18 million in the shots of Pennsylvania, was completed in 2019. The crew began the current phase by shielding the structure of the high plot and testing specialized inspections in drones on the bridge that carried 15.1 million vehicles by 2024, with an average of more than 41,000 vehicles a day.
In general, the project of Delaware River Porture Authority is focused on preventing the deterioration of the steel components of the Cantilever Bridge after the recommended biennial inspections and evaluations of helplessness and painting the 60 -feet -wide structural steel bridge 13,912 feet in length that the maintenance painting was last maintenance in 1996.
The team is taking advantage of drones to carry out manual inspections of the bridge ahead of the painting and rehabilitation process. If you gain enhanced visibility on the pads through this capacity, membets can traditionally access with difficult access points before erecting work platforms.
Courtesy of Skydio
The scope of the project also includes repairing and strengthening Truss members, ropes, pads, vibration absorbs and wind pins, and the installation of temporary jacking systems, as well as concrete roof repairs, application of protective coatings, spall repairs to pillars and dock caps, and replacement of 14,000 linear linears of electric ducts and wiring. The crews will also replace the existing barrier transfer machine of the bridge and the mobile barrier to improve the safety and management of traffic by modern infrastructure.
The project “will guarantee long -term reliability and security and significantly improve the displacement of the 41,000 vehicles that use the passage daily,” said Bill Mat, Senior Vice President and CEO of Skanska Koch, in a statement.
A drone performs a manual inspection of a wharf, highlighting the detailed visual data that is capable of capturing in complex structures before the rehabilitation process.
Courtesy of Skydio
Windy City
One of the main challenges is that the original design of the half -century bridge “ did not take into account large -scale rehabilitation work like this, especially with regard to travel lanes and additional space configurations and the loads that the structure must withstand during the project from teams, platforms and enclosures, ” says Mike Williams, spokesman for the authority.
Wind conditions can also affect the paint containment system, sometimes requiring the agency to close two of the five lanes of the bridge of the bridge during the construction. “The problem should be painted in carefully planned phases based on the analysis of wind load,” he says.
Aerial images captured by a drone provide an overview of a dock and their pads, which will be used in the next 3D scan demonstration of Commodore Barry Bridge
Courtesy of Skydio
To address structural burdens, authority dedicated AECOM and RWDI as consultants to run wind engineering. They performed an extensive analysis of the lateral wind loads provided for in the painting containment system. “Based on the analysis, [the authority] He has decided to strengthen several Truss members to improve the strength and stability of the bridge throughout the project, “says Williams.
Instead of using traditional rupture materials, the project will use recyclable steel abrasives, “a more efficient and environmentally responsible alternative to traditional covers,” says Clark.
Using a design -creation unit price contract, the team is adopting a “shielding and retaining approach to the whole bridge, which covers 3,300 linear feet on the water, says Clark.” We are building two shielding levels to adapt to the high traffic structure of the bridge at its pointed points, keeping the highest standards of safety. “
Test riders
Although a project of this size has traditionally been based on elevators, snooper trucks or other isolated and localized access systems for the measurement and steel field inspections, Clark says that the team is exploring drones to improve safety and efficiency for steel repair inspection, scanning and dimensioning of the field, ” Bridge.
The Skydio Self -Drone Drone Drons team designed for infrastructure inspections “and has capabilities such as avoiding obstacles to allow Truss structures to allow flight paths,” he says.
