Boring but informative post of the day

[zombiekiller]

Been super busy with a new project. Originally, this project was actually 2 separate projects: Reconstruction of a 15 mile stretch of an expressway and reconstruction of 14 bridges. Some time last year, the planners in my company back in the corporate office downtown came up with the idea that if we combine the 2 projects together we'd have the same construction management crew coordinating with each other. This way, we'd have 1 large project instead of 2. Also, instead of doing it for 2 years, we could do it in 1. This way, our profit would almost double. I know, exciting stuff

Anyway, I'm one of the CM's. I have 5 crews to oversee. Normally, they'd divide up the CM's into either roadway or bridges. But because of the intertwining nature of the project, in order to coordinate the work properly they gave me 2 bridge crews and 3 roadway crews.

Now, before demolishing a bridge they have to make sure that once the structures are removed the embankment soil doesn't collapse or runoff. They'd been previously compacted, so there shouldn't be any problem before we put in new structures. However, as an extra precaution, I had them put in temporary soil retention walls. These are just vertical beams piled about 30 feet into the ground to add stability to the embankment below.

First, they'd cut out a rectangle in the approach slab.

Then they'd pile the vertical beams into the soil below.

And here's me taking a selfie.

This is the end result. Again, it's a temporary soil retention wall.

Here is some excavation beneath one of the bridges.

 

[zombiekiller]

For this post to make sense, read the one right above. This site only lets me put in 5 pictures in each post.

Anyway, to demolish a bridge, they have to cut out the concrete slab where the cars drive on, exposing the beams below.

Remember how I said I got 2 bridge crews and 3 roadway crews so I could properly coordinate the work to save time and money? Well, a picture is worth a thousand words.

 

[zombiekiller]

Here's the demolition from another angle to give you a better perspective.

 

[roadtripboy]

That was cool. I didn't know that.

 

[LeicsDom]

So, I left my office and went out to one of our excavation sites today because I had nothing better to do

At this particular site, the crew was digging at multiple places in a rather busy downtown area. Let's just say that the local businesses as well as drivers were not happy .

Anyway, the boring info of the day is most people don't realize that many modern roads are built on top of brick roads from the times when horse drawn carriages were still the main form of transportation.

Where I live a lot of roads are cobbled with tarmac on top

 

[pat grimshaw]

Where I live a lot of roads are cobbled with tarmac on top...

we've got some of those too. some have tram tracks inches below the asphalt surface

 

[Cormac135]

The road is long.....

 

[FPNY]

/\ deep man...

 

[Rickrock]

Your commentary makes ordinary boring pictures interesting. Thanks.

 

[pat grimshaw]

Ever wonder what the bottom of an artificial detention pond look like? ...View attachment 1125724..

Does the pond collect water so they sun can evaporate it away? Or are there small holes so the water can drain into the soil slowly?

 

[Keeland]

How fun! Wish you could have posted larger pictures, though. Might be my ancient browser...

Try clicking on the pic after it opened from the thumbnail.

 

[zombiekiller]

Does the pond collect water so they sun can evaporate it away? Or are there small holes so the water can drain into the soil slowly?

This is a very good question.

Detention ponds serve several purposes. The most obvious one that everyone knows is to have a place for water to go to so a big rain doesn't flood out the whole area.

What most people don't know is that detention ponds are designed by environmental engineers to ensure the oil and various farming chemicals don't go straight down to the water cable.

The pictures in my post that you quoted show the various layers of materials that environmental engineers designed to act as bio filters. The idea is the natural bacteria that break down all that stuff will live in those layers and act as bio filters.

 

[pat grimshaw]

...Detention ponds serve several purposes. The most obvious one that everyone knows is to have a place for water to go to so a big rain doesn't flood out the whole area. ...

That's interesting. I thought they were called Retention ponds here rather than Detention ponds.

But then I looked at Google and it seems there are two sorts.

https://www.google.com.au/search?q=...hUKEwjm36mJzKvMAhXB3KYKHUkAC6sQ_AUICigA&dpr=1

 

[zombiekiller]

That reminds me. I gotta go back to it at some point and put fish in there. I may be doing bridge structural now, but I'm a drainage engineer at heart. I made it a mission to put fish in every one I've built.

 

[pat grimshaw]

...This is the end result. Again, it's a temporary soil retention wall.

....

Are these temporary soil retention walls re-used?

Because we've got rusting metal walls like these on riverbanks which would be over 50 years.

 

[zombiekiller]

Are these temporary soil retention walls re-used?

Because we've got rusting metal walls like these on riverbanks which would be over 50 years.

They're not meant to be permanent for obvious reason.

I have made it a habit of mine to pay 50% when they put in and 50% when they take out with regard to temporary items. Contractors are like kids. If they figure out they don't have to do something, they won't do it. I'm guessing the ones at your riverbank got put in as temporary but they never took it out and the engineer at the time just didn't care.

There are a lot of those engineers around. They just simply don't care for quality.

 

[pat grimshaw]

^ The engineers back in those days want a hard river bank. They straightened the river channel hoping the flow of water would scour a deep channel in the river.

It didn't happen. The river channel is silting up and the steel walls are rusting up.

 

[zombiekiller]

Ok, so I was planning to take some time off in December to redo my bathroom. New walls, new wall tiles, new floor tiles, new bathtub, new toilet, new vanity, etc. Even new lighting and paint.

Toward the last week of November, I got a call from my boss. He said in Arkansas they're about to construct a big-ass bridge and several small ones. They haven't got a bridge engineer to manage the actual structural part of the project yet. Was I interested? Actually, no, I wasn't interested. He said they'll pay for transportation, lodging, food, and a bonus for temporary relocation. Well, money talks and since the partner was going to go to Italy anyway... I foolishly accepted with 3 conditions. I gotta be able to go home whenever I want on their expense, my travel time has to be counted as work time, and I gotta have my dogs with me.

The first thing I did was take the rest of the last week of Nov off to work on my bathroom in a hurry. To give you an idea of what kind of hurry I was in, I finished the bathroom on last Saturday afternoon, took a shower in my new bathroom, jumped into my car, and started driving south.

So, here I am in Arkansas.

So, anyone who lives around the Bentonville area in Arkansas can recognize the following area.

Can't read? Let me zoom in for ya'll.

The project had already started for about 2 months. They spent the last 2 months doing roadway stuff and excavating the construction areas getting ready for the actual construction of the bridge.

The big bridge that I'll be working on will look like something like this.

First thing to put in for a bridge this size is one of the footings. Here's what a footing look like. See all the re-bars for reinforcement? Also notice those vertical re-bars. Those are for the columns.

To put things in perspective on how big the footing is...

That's 6 feet deep by the way.

God bless these guys. It took the workers from 7AM to 9PM to finish constructing just the footing. This gives you an idea of how much work is involved for one of these bridges.

By the time the concrete pour was done, temperature was getting quite low. So, the entire thing had to be covered up and a heater had to run all night and all day to keep everything warm. Otherwise, the concrete will not cure correctly and it could compromise the entire structure.

Ok, a little explanation for the purpose of the footing. It's there to transfer the load, or weight, of the entire system into the bedrock below. We had to have technicians doing various tests to the bedrock below to make sure it's strong enough to take all that weight without sinking.

This is still relatively lite work. This work will pick up considerably and I'll have 5-7 times the manpower in a couple months.

I'll keep you guys updated on this particular project so you get to see how a bridge this size takes shape from literally the ground up.

 

[NotHardUp1]

Thanks for posting pics of the process. It's interesting.

I hope you'll take some pics of attractive scenes in the area. The winter is a bit bleak looking, but that area of the state is quite beautiful in the other seasons -- fabulous fall color, great wildflowers and dogwood, and verdant forests all about.

The small towns have some charm too. Only Eureka Springs has really dressed up old storefronts, but even the poor small towns have their own charm in their old buildings. And there are lakes in your area like Bulls Shoals, mostly man made, but they are scenic too. Eat some local trout while you are in that area from the White River.

 

[star-warrior]

I recall that there was some siesmic activity in your current locale from a few years back, and possibly due to fracking. With those feet going down to bedrock, what level of earthquake activity can the design withstand? Magnitude 3, 4, or more?