Award of Merit, Highway/Bridge: First Avenue Bridge, Barstow, Calif.

First Avenue Bridge, Barstow, Calif.

Calif.

Award of Merit

Submitted by Skanska

Owner San Bernardino County Transportation Authority

Lead Design Firm/General Contractor Skanska USA Civil

A seven-span, post-tensioned concrete box girder bridge now stands in place of a 29-span steel and timber girder bridge across a busy railyard. The original bridge was first built in the 1930s.

Construction proceeded over and within the busy BNSF yard in a critical area where trains are assembled and disassembled, handling an average of 70 to 80 trains daily, both day and night. Such heavy traffic made scheduling track closures particularly challenging. To avoid major disruptions, full closures on live tracks were limited to Sundays and Mondays with a maximum six-hour window—but preferably two to three hours.

Although assembling an 850-ton crawler crane required about 40 equipment loads over several days, it enabled fewer and shorter track closures. The crane’s capacity also allowed larger sections of the bridge to be handled at once, reducing the number of required windows.

While dismantling the old bridge, the team used this crane to lift three massive steel trusses that weighed about 350 tons each. These lifts were completed within a three-hour window, minimizing track closures to a total of just five and allowing crews to safely place the trusses on the ground. Dismantling then proceeded with hydraulic shears without further train interference. And when it came time to place three new girder spans, they were picked and set on the ground during one window each, ensuring efficient completion.