Page 121 - Bridge and Highway Structure Rehabilitation and Repair

96 SECTION 1 ADMINISTRATIVE ISSUES

Table 3.6 History of failures during construction (constructability issues).

U.S. Bridges Location Year Construction Deficiencies
Hinton truss bridge West Virginia 1949 Insuffi cient design capacity of cantilever arm during construction
phase
Sullivan Square Viaduct Boston, Massachusetts 1952 Instability of scaffolding during construction
motorway bridge
Buckman Bridge Jacksonville, Florida 1970 Voided pier fi lled with sea water during construction—expansion
of pier—partial collapse of bridge
Motorway bridge Near Pasadena, California 1972 Scaffolding collapsed under weight of fresh concrete
(Arroyo Seco River)
Concrete 5-span box girder Near Rockford 1979 Large cracks, failure of epoxy-fi lled joint
bridge near (not enough hardened to take design shear force)
Multiple span box girder bridge East Chicago, Indianapolis 1982 Scaffolding collapsed under weight of fresh concrete
Prestressed concrete precast Saginaw, Michigan 1982 Temporary support elements too weak during construction
box girder bridge
Walnut Street Viaduct over I-20 Denver, Colorado 1985 Failure of pier head during construction sent eight bridge
girders onto road
El Paso bridge El Paso, Texas 1987 Inadequate scaffolding during construction

Motorway bridge Near Seattle, Washington 1988 Girders not tied together by diaphragms, domino effect
during construction
Box girder bridge Los Angeles, California 1989 Collapsed when scaffolding was removed during construction
Baltimore bridge Baltimore, Maryland 1989 Prestressing not in place, asymmetric loading
during construction

Truss bridge Concord, New Hampshire 1993 Stiffener mounted at wrong place during construction
3-span 3-girder composite bridge Near Clifton, Tennessee 1995 Executed construction sequence different from the one planned
Marcy bridge (Utica-Rome Marcy, New York 2002 Global torsional buckling during concreting, bridge not
Expressway project) braced properly
Imola Avenue Bridge Napa, California 2003 3- 100-ton hydraulic jacks to raise falsework failed to support
poured-in-place concrete deck slab
Bridge near Pawnee City Near Pawnee City, Nebraska 2004 Failure of falsework caused bridge collapsed during concrete
pouring

I-70 Bridge Denver, Colorado 2004 Bracings, fastened to bridge with bolts, came loose as girder
collapsed—construction failure

Canadian Bridges
Dawson Creek suspension bridge British Columbia 1957 Movement of anchorages on footings which were not fi xed
(Peace River) properly—sub-standard construction
Second Narrows Bridge Vancouver 1958 Bad construction details detected, but no action taken
(Gerber hinge) —construction failure

Arch bridge over Rideau River Ottawa 1966 Scaffolding collapsed under weight of fresh concrete
—construction failure
3-span arch bridge Elwood 1982 Lateral buckling of scaffolding due to insuffi cient lateral
supports—construction failure
Composite bridge near Sept-Iles Near Quebec 1984 Failure during construction from faulty calculations
—design errors