As part of the California Department of Transportation’s plan to replace the eastern span of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, a large concrete portion east of the tunnel on Yerba Buena Island had to be removed and replaced with a new seismically upgraded section. The bridge serves as an east-west connector to cities throughout the Metropolitan Bay Area and closing this section of Interstate Highway 80 would have a significant impact on traffic as well as business throughout the region.

To minimize the disruption of traffic, CalTrans decided to take advantage of the Labor Day holiday weekend 2007 by shutting down the bridge entirely to traffic starting at 8:00 PM on Friday night, August 31st until 5:00 AM the following Tuesday, September 2nd. The more than 5000 ton existing bridge section would have to be removed and replaced in a time period of just 81 hours!

Sheedy, in conjunction with Silverado Contractors, Inc. devised a detailed plan for the placement of cranes and heavy haul equipment necessary to remove concrete beams within the time constraints. After the bridge closure on Friday night, Silverado’s crews immediately began cutting the upper deck beams apart. Sheedy then provided the cranes, rigging gear and personnel to hoist out the concrete beams onto heavy haul trailers. Sheedy elected to use its Manitowoc 888 conventional crawler crane in a ringer configuration, allowing 90-ton concrete sections to be loaded to trailers over 200 feet from the crane, well out of the way of continuing demolition. Sheedy’s fleet of dual-lane trailers and prime movers were used to haul approximately 10 million pounds of removed beams to a site on the Oakland side of the bridge. Demolition was a complete success. In less than 50 hours, the bridge section was gone, with no injuries to the hundreds of skilled professionals working around the clock.

After the upper deck was removed, the new 6,500-ton section was rolled into place using computer-controlled jacking equipment. Sheedy provided experienced Ironworker labor for the roll-on procedure to the jack & roll subcontractor, Mammoet Corporation.

Advanced planning, close coordination, and dynamic leadership were key factors in the overall success of the project. As a result, the bridge was opened up to traffic again at 6:00 PM on Monday night, September 1st - eleven hours ahead of schedule.

Photos by
Bill Cendak II
www.cendakphotography.com
Tel: 415-368-2789