Transportation
Windy Conditions Require Intricate Phasing for Commodore Barry Bridge Blast Cleaning and Repainting Project
The project team is replacing traditional blasting materials with recyclable steel grit abrasives
The Commodore Barry Bridge—a vital transportation link between Pennsylvania and southern New Jersey—carried 15.1 million vehicles in 2024, averaging more than 41,000 vehicles per day.
Courtesy of the Delaware River Port Authority
Minimizing disruptions to travelers during a $220-million project to paint and repair the truss span of a highly used bridge between Chester, Pa. and Bridgeport, N.J. literally depends on which way the wind blows.
Sitting near the mouth of the Delaware River exposes the Commodore Barry Bridge’s narrow cantilever truss to wind conditions and other natural elements—presenting complexity that required “an intricate phasing process to complete the full blast clean and repainting for the entire steel superstructure,” says Rebecca Clark, vice president of operations at Skanska USA Civil. The bridge is a major link for commuters and travelers from the Philadelphia area to New Jersey.
The Commodore Barry Bridge—a vital transportation link between Pennsylvania and New Jersey—carried 15.1 million vehicles in 2024, averaging more than 41,000 vehicles per day.
Courtesy of the Delaware River Port Authority
Skanska Koch Inc., a division of Skanska Civil USA, started the project’s third phase in December 2024 and expects to finish in the first quarter of 2028. Phase one, a $19.7-million installation of a coating system, finished in 2016; Phase two, $18 million worth of work on the Pennsylvania spans, was completed in 2019. Crews began the current phase by shielding the tall truss structure and testing specialized drone inspections on the bridge that carried 15.1 million vehicles in 2024, averaging more than 41,000 vehicles per day.
Overall, the Delaware River Port Authority project is focused on preventing deterioration of the cantilever bridge’s steel components after biennial inspections and assessments recommended de-leading and repainting the 60-ft wide x 13,912-ft-long structural steel bridge that last received maintenance painting in 1996.
The team is leveraging drones to perform manual inspections of the bridge ahead of the paint and rehabilitation process. By gaining enhanced visibility to the pier bearings through this capability, membets can access traditionally hard-to-reach spots prior to erecting work platforms.
Courtesy of Skydio
The project’s scope also includes repairing and strengthening truss members, stringers, bearings, vibration absorbers, and wind pins, and installation of temporary jacking systems, as well as concrete deck repairs, protective coatings application, spall repairs to piers and pier caps and replacement of 14,000 linear ft of electrical conduit and wiring. Crews will also replace the bridge’s existing barrier transfer machine and movable barrier to improve safety and traffic management with modern infrastructure.
The project will “ensure long-term reliability and safety, and significantly enhance the commute for the 41,000 vehicles that utilize the passageway daily,” Bill Matre, senior vice president and general manager of Skanska Koch, said in a statement.
A drone conducts a manual inspection of a bearing at the pier, highlighting the detailed visual data it is able to capture in complex structures prior to the rehabilitation process.
Courtesy of Skydio
Windy City
One major challenge is that the original design of the half-century-old bridge “did not account for large-scale rehabilitation work like this, particularly regarding travel lane configurations and the additional space and loads the structure must support during the project from equipment, platforms and enclosures,” says Mike Williams, a spokesman for the authority.
Wind conditions can also impact the paint containment system, sometimes requiring the agency to close two of bridge’s five bridge lanes during construction. “The truss must be painted in carefully planned phases based on wind load analysis,” he says.
Aerial footage captured by a drone provides an overview of a pier and its bearings, which will be used in the upcoming 3D scan demonstration of the Commodore Barry Bridge
Courtesy of Skydio
To address the structural loads, the authority engaged AECOM and RWDI as consultants to lead wind engineering. They conducted extensive analysis of the anticipated lateral wind loads on the painting containment system. “Based on the analysis, [the authority] has decided to strengthen several truss members to improve the bridge’s strength and stability throughout the project,” Williams says.
Rather than using traditional blasting materials, the project will employ recyclable steel grit abrasives, “a more efficient and environmentally responsible alternative to traditional blasting materials,” Clark says.
Using a design bid-build unit price contract, the team is taking a “phased approach to shielding and containment of the entire bridge, which covers 3,300 linear feet over water, says Clark. “We are constructing two levels of shielding to accommodate the bridge’s tall truss structure at its peak points while maintaining the highest safety standards,” she adds.
Test Pilots
While a project of this size has traditionally relied on lifts, snooper trucks or other isolated and localized access systems for steel field measuring and inspections, Clark says the team is exploring implementing drones to enhance safety and efficiency for steel repair inspection, scanning, and field dimensioning,” in preparation for blast cleaning and repainting of the truss area of the bridge.
The team is piloting Skydio Autonomous Drones designed for infrastructure inspections “and have capabilities such as obstacle avoidance to allow intricate flight paths between truss structures,” she says.
