Madrid bridge, closed for year-and-a-half, to open early on Nov. 27
Monday, November 23, 2009, 2:29pm
By CRAIG FREILICH
MADRID – The bridge across the Grasse River, closed for reconstruction since May 2008, will reopen earlier than expected Nov. 27.
“It might be late in the day, but the contractor is working feverishly to that end,” said DOT Region 7 spokesman Michael Flick.
“So they’re about a month ahead of schedule. It’s gone very well,” Flick said.
The bridge was closed to vehicle traffic in May 2008 after serious structural defects were discovered.
Once construction work began last spring, pedestrians could not traverse the span as they had been able to do before the machinery, materials and activity made it too dangerous. DOT arranged for a free shuttle bus along the detour route across the Grasse River and back into Madrid, with extended hours during the annual Bluegrass Festival in late June.
Difficult for Business, Emergencies
The original plan announced immediately after the closure in 2008 was for the bridge to be rebuilt in 2010. But an eight-mile detour, a bleak business picture downtown, longer school bus runs, delays for emergency vehicles, and upset residents forced DOT to submit the work plan as a priority, speeding up approvals and resulting in the work getting started a year earlier.
Syracuse-area contractor Slate Hill Constructors had until the end of the year to finish the major bridge work, but the early completion fits right in with the good reports about the contractor from the DOT engineer overseeing the project, Todd Townsend.
“Todd has had nothing but good things to say about the contractor,” said Flick.
Once the bridge opens again to traffic, some work will not yet be finished, Flick notes.
“The ancillary work will begin after the weather clears in the spring.”
That will include installation of signs, painting, landscaping, and improvements to State Highway 345 on either side of the bridge, things that were not part of the priority work that began last May.
“The focus of the project was to get the bridge open,” said Flick.
Bridge Shifted
The 19th-century seven-arch stone structure had been inspected closely by DOT after part of the structure was found in 2006 to have shifted. It was closed then for about a month while some work to stabilize it was done.
But another inspection in May last year led officials to first impose a 15-ton weight limit, and then to close the bridge and begin looking at what was needed to maintain or replace the bridge.
DOT officials explained that the bridge had been inspected every two years since the inception of the New York State Bridge Inspection Program in the early 1980s.
“In 2005 the bridge received a yellow structural flag for longitudinal cracks in spans 005 and 006,” a DOT report to Madrid officials said.
“During the 2006 interim inspection outward movement of the bridge fascia, or the outer most portion of the structure was discovered. The bridge received a Red Structural Flag for that condition and an emergency contract was initiated to make repairs,” the report said.
The bridge was put on an annual inspection cycle, with an additional inspection in the spring “to assess crack widening due to freeze/thaw effects on the earth fill.”
Some more movement of the structure was discovered in the two inspections in 2007, enough to increase concern but not enough to declare the structure unsafe.
“In the spring of 2008, the bridge inspectors noted substantial new movement in the crack monitors. In addition, they noted rapid deterioration (significant longitudinal cracking) of the asphalt surface which further indicated significant and potentially dangerous movement of the structure had occurred. These findings required an immediate course of action,” said the report.
“Based on accelerated movement recorded on the crack monitors it was determined that a “Red Structural Flag” was warranted. This type of flag mandates that the structure be posted for load, immediately repaired or closed until repairs are made.
“The Department evaluated posting the bridge for load and reducing the structure to one-way alternating traffic to reduce live-load effects and slow the rate of cracking. It was then decided that full closure to vehicular traffic was the only reliable way to protect the travelling public until repairs can be made or the structure is replaced.”
Detour Signs To Remain
DOT spokesman Flick says they will leave the detour signs up for a while after the bridge reopens, “sort of a ‘soft transition’” to try to diminish confusion.
An official opening ceremony will be held sometime in the next couple of weeks, when all the people they want there can be brought together, Flick said.
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