Redesigning a special frame needed to stabilize pier-top bridge segments during a tricky work phase is the reason construction of the East Toledo approach to the Veterans' Glass City Skyway was suspended for more than a month, an Ohio Department of Transportation official said late last week.
Work resumed Friday, and Jeff Baker, ODOT's project manager, said work would have resumed on the $220 million cable-stayed I-280 bridge over the Maumee River earlier in the week if not for high wind that buffeted the area.
The delay has kept lanes and ramps on Front Street closed near I-280 weeks past original mid-October reopening dates.
The transportation department now does not expect the first reopening until mid-December.
"This thing ended up being more complicated and time-consuming than they [project contractor Fru-Con Construction Co.] thought," Mr. Baker said.
The four approach spans that are next in line for assembly by the large yellow truss crane, Approach Gantry 1, involve a stretch of the bridge in which the exit ramp to Front will diverge from southbound I-280.
Precast concrete segments for the through lanes for the first two spans are asymmetrical, because they will butt up against ramp spans that have already been installed.
Segments for the two spans are among the largest and heaviest to be installed on the structure.
To make sure that the asymmetrical, and thus weight-imbalanced, spans do not twist during construction, a reinforcing assembly has been added to the pier-top segments that will anchor the spans until they are completed, Mr. Baker said.
Original plans called for that assembly to be bolted on to the pier-top segments.
However, engineers later determined that bolting wouldn't work, the project manager said, so the assembly had to be redesigned so that it could be clamped on.
Fru-Con, of Ballwin, Mo., and its engineering consultants underestimated the time that the redesign would take, which accounts for the work suspension and the extension of the lane and ramp closings, Mr. Baker said.
Fabricating the frame structure also took longer than expected, he said.
Single-lane traffic on Front has occasionally been congested, and the ramp closings and left-turn restrictions in the work area have been hassles for nearby residents and East Toledo and Oregon commuters who might otherwise use Front to reach the Craig Memorial Bridge.
First Published November 21, 2005, 1:48 p.m.
