some job pics

[swamp donkey]

hey everyone. I dont post here much but seeing a couple of people show pictures of what they do kinda got me inspired. So im gonna show some pictures of a bridge repair i did about a month ago. Quite a job i was 2 hours out of town workin on this bridge 12-14 hours a day 7 days a week for 3 1/2 weeks... not that much work i guess compared to some other poeple but still a fair bit.
The first and second pictures are pictures as to why i was there. The expansion **** busted and started to let water through and running on the concrete erodded and rotted it so the bearing plate wasnt sitting on anything.( these pictures where taken after we jackhammered the bad concrete out and jacked the bridge to sit on temporary supports)
The third and fourth pictures are of the shape the bearing plates where in when we got there.. out of 24 we replaced 18. THe originals where two steel plates with a copper spacer in between for them to slide on when the bridge expands/contracts or shift.
Picture 5 is of the jacking beams we had to lift in place. Each one weighs about 400 pounds. We had to core about 96 holes through the piers to put these in place and then put 1 1/4" threaded rod through and torque to 750 ftlbs.
Once the beams were up and in place we put in little stub columns to support the bridge after it was jacked up as shown in picture two. To lift the bridge we used 6- 100 ton jacks to lift it 5mm. Once the columns were in place we set the bridge down and started gouging the old plates off, cleaning up and setting in the new bearing plates.

[aametalmaster]

[QUOTE=swamp donkey;146114]Quite a job i was 2 hours out of town workin on this bridge 12-14 hours a day 7 days a week for 3 1/2 weeks... not that much work i guess compared to some other poeple but still a fair bit.

The third and fourth pictures are of the shape the QUOTE]

Nice job. And working 7 days a week for weeks is a killer too. I am going on 5 1/2 weeks straight now and if it wasn't for Burt in Hawaii keeping me going at work i would be nuts...Bob

[KBar]

if it wasn't for Burt in Hawaii keeping me going at work i would be nuts...Bob

You mean Bert was there jumping up and down on the bridge the whole time you were trying to weld it ?

Nice work, really enjoyed looking at all the pics. That Lincoln has to be worth its weight in gold with that many hours and still going strong. I have to ask though, I saw it was done during cold weather and I know the State or Township where the bridge is located has all kind of specs on the welding procedures as far as amperage, etc, do they allow a tolerance if the temperature gets below a certain degree and you need to add extra amperage or heat to dissplace moisture in the metal ?

[Bert]

Well....SOMEBODY had to test it out, made sure the welds and the bridge held together!!!! They looked for the BIGGEST fat @$$ guy around, and the foreman said those most favorite words everyone loves to hear:
"HEY YOU!!!"
the rest is history........
hey, the welds and bridge held up, didn't it???
GOOD JOB swamp donkey!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Craig in Denver]

Nice job. And working 7 days a week for weeks is a killer too. I am going on 5 1/2 weeks straight now and if it wasn't for Bert in Hawaii keeping me going at work i would be nuts...Bob

Bob: If you're using BERT as a reference for your sanity....... you're in trouble.

[swamp donkey]

Thanks for all your positive feed back guys.
Bert... thank god no i didnt have to drive back and forth everyday. That would be killer. They put us up in a hotel and man after a month hotel food gets kinda sickning.. i thought coming home and having mac and cheese was glorious.

As to that old lincoln... yeah shes worht her weight in something. It lives to gouge when you can get it started... it was usually -10C so beng a desil it had troubles starting. We usually had to let it warm up for half the day but once she got started we left it running all day. Now for the welding specs all we had to do for welding was keep our rods in an oven and then post and preheat the plates/ welds to get the moisture out. WE usually pre and post heat anything colder than -10C. THe only time temperature took affect was when we were jacking the bridge and putting shims in. The inspector told us that the bridge expands and contracts in temperature change slightly so when setting it down permanently we had to shim accordinly to set the bridge properly... i think i wasnt involved with that cause i was manning the hydraulic motor swithcing it from forward to reverse..

[Bert]

Bob: If you're using BERT as a reference for your sanity....... you're in trouble.

OOooohhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I see ANOTHER fight brewing!!!!!!!!!! lmao....
He said "from keeping him nuts", didn't say anything about being psycho!!!
lmao........

[Cram]

Great post and pictures! Scary thing is that there are probably hundreds if not thousands of bridges in the USA that need at least this much work done on them.

[swamp donkey]

They scary thing is actaully when the inspector told me when crossing a bridge its probably best just to speed up and keep going than to slow down and enjoy the scenery...
He said theres lots of bridges that need little minor repairs but like every government thing theres only soo much budget to get things done per year.

[swamp donkey]

Pictures six and seven show the dis assembly of the bearing plates. WE also had to cut the old anchors out and weld new replacement ones in as shown in picture 8.
Picture 9 is a picture of the new bearing plates we put in. I think they were made of 1 1/2 steel plate galvanized plates. The new bearings had a fabric pad sitting on the concrete and then a plate with a rubber bearing pad in the middle and another steel galvanized plate. The top plate had to be welded to the girder and picture ten is a show of one of the welds i did. They were a three pass fillet weld done with 5/32" 7018.