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.

Muti Beam Bridge Inspections

Today we inspected two muti beam bridges which carry I-95 North and South bound. Both bridges had several large spalls and hollow areas. There were a few areas of minor section loss and a couple holes in the web and web stiffeners.

Since we inspected the bridge two years ago we were able to insect the bridge more efficiently. We will also be conducting a rating for the bridge in the near future and were able to save drive time and confirm measurements for the rating.

I-95 Culvert and Arcadia Arch

Today I inspected a concrete box culvert with two cells. The culvert is 150 feet long and was pretty tricky to move around in with a few layers to stay warm and a pair of chest waders to stay dry.

The concrete arch is located right at Arcadia Park in Exeter, Rhode Island and spans over a small river.

Both structures required little to no equipment but waders certainly made it easier.

Arcadia has many trails for hiking and offers many small timber bridges with 5 ton postings typicaly so becareful if you're hauling something close that tonage.
http://www.riparks.com/arcadia.htm

I-95 over Amtrak

For the past few weeks I have been doing night inspections on tack with the help of Amtrak's finest and New England Bridge. For the inspection we used two flagmen, 60 foot Elliot rail mounted truck and a 45 foot rail mounted bucket truck. The multi girder, 4 span bridge has retrofit diaphragm connections which have cracked welds with arrest holes.

Rolled Steel Beam Bridge Inspection

A chilly night in Providence's begin with the inspection of a rolled steel beam bridge over I-95 Southbound. Even with the best traffic pattern the "S' curves in Providence is a dangerous place to be. The exit sign for the next exit had been damaged from a previous impact even with truck traffic detoured around a posted bridge further down I-95.