Pony Truss in Western Massachusetts

A few weeks ago I did some rigging for the first time out in western Mass. The inspection was for a pony truss with severe section loss to the steel stringers. At first it was a little hairy walking on the 2 foot wide platform but by the end of the day it felt normal. 

The inspection took about 5 hours and the drive was 3 hours each way.

Rigging Weathering Steel Truss

Early in the week I traveled out to Western Massachusetts to do a special member inspection for a truss. The truss has advanced section loss to the steel stringers.

Mississippi Truss Rating

Starting to help our Mississippi office with some truss ratings.

Several of the trusses do not have plans and measurements of all the members and deficiencies had to be taken.

On Friday I started a Truss in Hinds-Warren County which spans over Big Black River and carries Old Highway 80. The bridge consists of ten approach spans to the west and one east. The main truss spans 170 feet and has 8 panels.Currently I'm just checking the net area for the measured members for section properties and dead load calculations.

Trapazoidal Steel Box Girders

Still working on the Central Artery Inspection contract, we have switched from concrete segmental boxes to steel box girders.

Now just north of Boston near Cambridge and Somerville, we are inspecting ramps for Interstate 93 which consist of steel box girders.

Currently I'm working on a bridge which has two steel box girders there for making it a fracture critical bridge as well. The bridge is six span continuous with a cast in place concrete deck. The bridge carries Interstate 93 Ramps NS and SN over Boston Sand and Gravel.

For the exterior of the box we used a manlift to inspect and gain access to the interior of the box. The interior of the box is a permit required confined space so we needed air meters and rescue inhalers.

Two Week Bridge Inspection Course

The past weeks I was taking the NHI Safety Inspection of In-Service Bridges course.

Since I've been doing bridge design, ratings and inspections for a few years now I already had a good grasp on a lot of the topics but it gave me a more in depth knowledge into the appraisal and condition ratings of bridge elements and items.

I'd recommend anyone working in the bridge engineering, construction or maintenance to take a look at the course. It also gives you 60 hours towards your professional development.

Safety Inspection of In-Serive Bridges Training Course

So the next two weeks I will be out in Worcester, MA taking the Saftey Inspection of In-Service Bridges. The course is based off of the Bridge Inspectors reference manual and is the next step to me becoming a team leader as well as giving me a more in depth understanding of what I do every day.

Western Kentucky Bridge Collapse

Apparently two spans of the Kentucky Bridge Collapsed Thursday after being hit by a 312 foot long cargo ship. Luckily no one was injured.

This collapse will expedite the plans of replacing the bridge which carries 2,800 vehicles a daily. I'm hoping this makes the state realize the benefits of having pier protection in the channel, making sure navigation lights are working and checking the freeboard on vessels better. Here's a story about how it caused the internet to go out at local schools, oh yeah side note it also made a bridge collapse.

P.T. Segmental Concrete Box Girder Inspection

This past week I started inspecting the Central Artery ramps in South Boston. The ramps we are inspecting consist of concrete Type IV precast box girders and span over 150 feet. The ramps carry I-93 Northbound and Southbound as well as the Southbound HOV lanes.

The past two weeks we have inspected seven ramps, which has made me very familiar with South Boston (one of the few areas I wasn't familiar with before).

To gain access to the interiors we used a 40' bucket truck and on the last day we used a 70' elliot with a HUGE basket. 

Each span has access hatches but one near the ground level was locked. After calling MassDOT to unlock it we found out that the lock was not theirs. Once inside we discovered the typical debris left by the homeless. All the other boxes were fairly clean in comparison though.

The previous inspections had sketches with deficiencies which made the inspections move a efficiently with the majority of the efficiencies still in the same condition as it was two years ago.

What a concrete box girder motel looks like.