Point Street Bridge

Today we begin the fracture critical inspection of the Point Street Bridge which spans over the Providence River in Providence RI. The bridge was built in 1927 as a swing bridge to allow larger boats upstream but the bridge is no longer has the motors to turn the four gears below. The inspection started with preparing for the 20 degree weather that was made even worse by the gusts of wind off the water. Before I could inspect the upper portion of the truss I first had to clean out 6" of ice from the inside of the bucket while the other part of the inspection team awaited the arrival of the safety boat and barge.

At first site the small barge seemed funny and misplaced among the large tug boats and other barges but the light weight barge was easy to maneuver and made for efficient inspection of the lower cord. The tide made the inspection slightly more difficult at certain times, at one point you were standing to see the lower portions of the cord and other times laying down to since there was only a foot or so of clearance.

  

 The upper portion of the truss reached up to about 75 feet about the water level and even with several layers of clothing I was still freezing.