Last Thursday (St. Patrick's Day) I inspected a concrete three span concrete T-beam bridge in Providence RI. For a Spring day in New England we could not have asked for a better day, I believe that the air temp was around 65 or so but the water was somewhere around 35ish.
The bridge carries I-95 spans 1319 feet over the Moshassuck River (57.1 feet Max span). With a 42 degree skew the width of 28.5 feet seemed more like one hundred with such a large skew.
The inspection started off a little slow, squeezing into waders and carrying a 20 foot ladder down to the river. Once that was complete we were able to make our way around the dry spans quickly and noticed vertical cracking on the beams which the previous report missed.
We saved the tough part for last tho. The river was moving moderately and the pockets of scour left awkward drops off up to 38" high and add to that carrying an extension ladder. The good part about the severe skew was that it helped to hold the ladder in place for a secure feeling and helped us finish the inspection safely.
While inspecting one of the dry spans, we had another surprise QC check by RIDOT. So far it seems to be a waste of our time and RIDOT's but I'm sure its well worth it for RIDOT to know which consultants are operating safely and correctly.
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