1/29/2024 0 Comments Bridge underpass"Design-build is one of those things where we allow the private sector innovation to come in with concepts to help us accomplish a tremendous amount of work in a short period of time. “We have 294 other grade crossings to go, and alternative delivery methods like design-build let us do it this way,” he told ENR while touring the Covert Ave. New York state’s recent advocacy for design-build project delivery was a key factor in choosing to go with the Petrucco method, according to Phillip Eng, president of the LIRR. State's Embrace of Design-Build a Major Factor “It is simple work, but it is not easy work,” says Alvise Petrucco, inventor of the technology. before, but the technique is far less accepted than in other parts of the world. According to Petrucco, the company has performed rail underpass box-jackings over 1,500 times globally, in countries including Spain, Canada and Qatar, since the method was first introduced in 1978. Other similar box-jacking methods have been used for underpasses in the U.S. While the LIRR 3rd Track is the first usage of Petrucco’s specialized box-jacking method in the U.S., it has been widely used in other parts of the world. ![]() All of this was finished within the outage window that LIRR had allowed. ![]() All that remained was to link up tracks on Sunday so commuter trains could run on Monday morning. This shaved considerable time off of the startup during the rail outage, allowing the box-jacking operation to begin earlier in the day.Īt Covert Ave., the box began moving at 8:45 a.m. "One of the lessons learned was coming up with a better solution to remove the sheet piles quicker so we can start jacking earlier," he says. Almeter says they learned a few things from that move that they were applying on the Covert Ave. of the target position, and finished three hours ahead of schedule. The design allows for plus or minus 3 in. "Right now, I'm monitoring jacking rates and alignment-the horizontal and vertical alignment of this box," explains Almeter, pointing to a digital level and a set of prisms mounted to the corners of the box. If it drifts up or down, the amount of soil packed under its leading edge is adjusted to get it level again. If it begins to drift sideways, the hydraulic jacks are adjusted to steer it back on center. Keeping the box level and on-target is key during the move, so a total station set up at one end monitors prisms mounted to the box. "We have some really experienced guys who know how behaves in all kinds of soils." "For this kind of job, we are talking about millimeters of accuracy," he says. Properly surveying soil characteristics and planning around the environment is critical to the success of the box-jacking method, according to Diego Rodriguez, project manager for Petrucco USA. site, the box's final position was entirely on natural soil. site, the box's final position will be half on the slab and half on soil. ![]() The box is pushed off of a concrete launching slab, but that slab does not extend the full distance it will travel. At the Covert Ave. While Petrucco’s method normally calls for sliding the box underneath existing rails, limited site access meant the rail had to be installed on the top of the box. ![]() Prep work included excavating the underpass and installing sheet piles to shore up the sides. The 2,000-metric-ton concrete box was cast on site, and then slid 58 ft into its final place. The Covert Avenue box consists of a 112-ft by 40-ft reinforced concrete slab, with 24-ft side walls and two spans on top bearing rail and a roadway. and Covert Ave., we will have cars flowing underneath the railroad in six months." But this, it's just ingenious."įor comparison, Tufano says LIRR did a grade-crossing elimination further down the line several years ago that took almost three years to complete. "If we had done it with a conventional method, we would have had to build abutments while the tracks were there, taken a lot more outages to put those abutments in place, and we would have had to fly a bridge in or roll a bridge in, like when we do a bridge replacement. According to Tufano, it's a huge leap forward from how LIRR traditionally does grade-crossing eliminations. "So we profiled our tracks beforehand and we excavate, push this bridge in, put the soil back and build a railroad," he says.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |