The BRUCE SGH-2015 Pile Hammer completed the pile driving of Chincoteague Channel Bridges at VA, USA
BRUCE PILING
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BRUCE HAMMER SUCCESS STORY IN USA
By Bayshore Concrete Products at Pile Driving Association Magazine January, 2009
Chincoteague is a small town on the Eastern Shore of Virginia with roughly 4,000 residents. It hosts more than one million tourists each year and is famous for its annual Pony Swim and Auction.
The Black Narrows and the Chincoteague Channel Bridges on Virginia Route 175 provide the only access to Chincoteague Island. These steel bridges, built in 1939 and 1940, have become costly to maintain and repair, and are narrower than current standards for safety and ease of traffic flow.
The citizens of Chincoteague knew that a new bridge was needed and they lobbied the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) and the Commonwealth Transportation Boards (CTB) for funds to replace the bridges. Environmental concerns, sustainability and the timeline were the major factors in the determination to use pre-cast concrete for this project.
The performance and sustainability of pre-cast pre-stressed concrete, combined with the economical advantages and design flexibility, make it the preferred construction material for today’s bridge designers. In addition, pre-cast pre-stressed concrete construction reduces installation time by eliminating expensive and time-intensive field formwork.
The Bruce SGH-2015 completed the pile driving of Chincoteaque Channel Bridges at Va, USA
During the design phase of the bridge, the designers focused on both 24-inch square piles and 36-inch cylinder piles.
The 36-inch centrifugal-spun cylinder piles were chosen for their superior engineering properties. The centrifugal-spun cylinder piles minimize the battering of the piles, and the quantity of piles required is less. These benefits are realized without increasing the overall weight of the pile.
In January 2007, American Bridge Company was awarded the contract to build a new bridge with work beginning in March 2007. Bayshore Concrete Products Corporation in Cape Charles, Va. was chosen to provide the pre-cast, pre-stressed concrete components for the new bridge. Bayshore’s stringent manufacturing and inspection processes permit a degree of quality control that is almost impossible to attain in the field. Bayshore Concrete Products, a PCI-certified company, is only 50 miles from Chincoteague and has many employees with local connections to the island, which makes it a very special project for the Bayshore Concrete Team. The new bridge will be three-quarters of a mile (4,035 feet) with a 729-foot connector bridge linking the bridge to Marsh Island. It is expected to be complete in November 2009.