Project Overview
In May 2018, NTH was selected by the Macomb County Department of Roads to provide as-needed engineering services for various bridge projects at the county for a two year period. As part of the contract, two tasks were requested by MCDR that included providing engineering services for replacement of two bridges; the Jefferson Avenue bridge over Salt River in Chesterfield; and the South River Road bridge over the channel to Lake St. Clair in Harrison Township. The Jefferson Ave. bridge is a two-lane, two-span bridge. Plans were to remove the bridge and replace it with a similar bridge that is slightly skewed and shifted from the current location, and as such, will require new abutments and pier. The South River Rd. bridge is also a two lane bridge, and is planned to be replaced with a culvert type structure.
Project Scope
Prior to mobilization to the site, NTH prepared a site specific Health and Safety Plan. Field work included coring through the bridges decks and installing a temporary casing through the opening to allow advancement of the drill rods through the bridge deck to reach soils below the river and allow for proper field sampling and testing.
Once the field and laboratory testing was completed, NTH provided the recommendations to MCDR. Since the owner was designing the bridge replacement in-house, we continued communicating with the department and provided additional recommendations as the design evolved.
Client Benefit
Due to its location, traffic along the Jefferson Ave. bridge needed to be maintained during the field work. NTH completed the drilling using appropriate traffic control and flagging operations that resulted in the work being safely completed without incidents. In addition, and because of our experience with projects requiring similar design input, and in-house expertise, NTH was very responsive to inquiries for additional input to allow the owner to continue the design without delays.
