Bakersfield Bridge Seismic Retrofit, Caltrans Contract #06-0K8104
The seismic retrofit project included two outdated bridges in desperate need of some attention. One of the major challenges of a retrofit is that all of the work is designed based on the assumption that the original product was built perfectly to the original design. By understanding that this is not a reasonable assumption, we were able to stay ahead of the process and partner with Caltrans to overcome the multiple discrepancies found throughout the existing structures. The project included 18 XX-strong steel pipe extenders, ranging from 8-10 feet long, that had to be installed inside the hinges on both bridges. The process required outside-the-box thinking to devise a plan to hoist the pipes inside of the bridges and slide them through a cored hole in the existing hinges. Other challenging aspects of the project included 25’ tall infill walls between columns, steel column casings, bridge footing retrofit, diaphragm bolster construction bridge access openings, barrier rail, guard rail, and paving.
