Contractors erecting a 5,000-ton steel and concrete bridge in southern Virginia beat the clock as they attached the second of two pre-assembled 250-ton leaves and raised it on Aug. 8. The feat allowed them to reopen the busy Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway with time to spare on their 72-hour channel-closure window.
The five-lane bridge at Great Bridge, in Chesapeake, Va., works like a fine watch. Tolerances are tight. Steel was shop drilled for 60,000 2-in. bolts to a tol-erance of 0.03 in. by a fab-ricator in Wisconsin for bolt-up on site.